Dfl 87 
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1896 
Copy 1 



No.185-186. 






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MAYNARD'S 

i^NGLisH- Classic- Series 

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LIFE OF NELSON 



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Robert SouTHEY 



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NEW YORK 

Maynard, Merrill & Co. 

43,45 tt 47 East lOIH St. 



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ENGLISH CLASSIC SERIES, 

FOR 

Classes in English Literature, Beading, Grammar, etc. 

EDITED BY EMINENT ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SCHOLARS. 



Each Volume contains a Sketch of the Author's Life, Prefatory and 
Explanatory Notes, etc., etc. 



1 Bjrron's Prophecy of Dante. 

(Cantos I. and II.) 
^ Milton's li' Allegro, and II Pen- 
seroso. 

3 Lord Bacon's Essays, Civil and 

Moral. (Selected.) 

4 Byron's Prisoner of Chillon. 

B Moore's Fire "Worshippers. 
(LallaRookh. Selected.) 

6 Goldsmith's Deserted Village. 

7 Scott's Marinion. (Selections 

from Canto VI.) 

8 Scott's L<ay of the Last Minstrel. 

(Introduction and Canto I.) 

9 Burns' sCotter'sSaturday Night, 

and other Poems. 

10 Crabbe's The Village. 

11 CanipbelFs Pleasures of Hope. 

(Abridgment of Part I.) 

12 3Iacaulay's Essay on Bunyan's 

Pilgrim's Progress. 

13 Macaulay's Armada, and other 

Poems. 

14 Shakespeare's Merchant of Ve- 

nice. (Selections from Acts I., 
III., and IV.) 

15 Goldsmith's Traveller. 

16 Hogg's Queen's Wake, and Kil- 

meny, 

17 Coleridge's Ancient Mariner. 

18 Addison's Sir Roger de Cover- 

ley. 

19 Gray's Elegy in a Country 

Churchyard. 
80 Scott's Lady of the Lake. (Canto 

I.) 
iSl Shakespeare's As You Like It, 

etc. (Selections.) 
S3 Shakespeare's King John, and 

liichard II. (Selections.) 
83 Shakespeare's Henry IV., Hi 

ry v., Henry VI. (Selection: 

24 Shakespeare's Henry VIII., a 

Julius Caesar. (Selections.) 

25 "Wordsworth's Excursion. (Bl 

86 Pope's Essay on Criticism. 

87 Speu.ser'sFaerieQueene. (Car 

I. and II.) 

88 Cowper'8 Task. (Book I.) 

89 Milton's Comus. ^ 
30 Tennyson's Enoch Arden, 1 

l.<otu8 Eateifs, Ulysses, t 
TIthonus. 

(Additional ■ 



(Selec- 



31 Irving's Sketch Book 

tions.) 

38 Dickens's Christmas Carol. 
(Condensed.) 

33 Carlyle's Hero as a Prophet. 

34 Macaulay's W^arren Hastings* 

(Condensed.) 

35 Goldsmith's Vicar of Wake- 

field. (Condensed.) 

36 Tennvson's The Two Voices, 

and A Dream of Fair Women. 

37 Memory Quotations. 

38 Cavalier Poets. 

39 Dryden's Alexander's Feast, 

and MacFlecknoe. 

40 Keats's The Eve of St. Agnes. 

41 Irving.'s Legend of Sleepy Hol- 

low. 
48 Lamb's Tales from Shake- 
speare. 

43 Le Row's How to Teach Bead- 

ing. 

44 Webster's Bunker Hill Ora- 

tions. 

45 The Academy OrthoCpist. A 

Manual of Pronunciation. 

46 Milton's Lycidas, and Hymn 

on the Nativity. 

47 Bryant's Thanatopsis, and Other 

Poems. 

48 Buskin's Modern Painters. 

(Selections.) 

49 The Shakespeare Speaker. 

50 Thackeray's Roundabout Pa- 

pers. 

51 Webster's Oration on Adams 

and Jefl'erson. 
58 Brown's Rab and his Friends. 
53 Morris's Life and Death of 

Jason. 



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English Classic Series-continued. 



B3 The Antigone of Sophocles. 

English Version by Thos. Franck- 

lin, D.D. 
S4 Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 

(Selected Poems.) 
B5 Robert Browning. (Selected 

Poems.) 
B6 Addison's Spectator. (Selec*ns.) 

67 Scenes from George Eliot's 

Adam Bede. 

68 Matthew Arnold's Culture and 

Anarchy. 

69 DeQuincey's Joan of Arc. 

70 Carlyle's Essay on Burns. 

71 Byron's Childe Harold's Pil- 

grimage. 

72 Poe's Raven, and other Poems. 

73 & 74 Macaulay's liOrd Clive. 

(Double Number. ) 
75 "Webster's Reply to Hayne. 
76&77 Macaulay's liavs of An- 

cient Rome. (Double Number.) 

78 American Patriotic Selections: 

Declaration of Independence, 
Washington's Farewell Ad- 
dress, Lincoln's Gettysburg 
Speech, etc. 

79 & 80 Scott's Lady of the I.ake. 

(Condensed.) 

81 & 82 Scott's Marmion. (Con- 
densed.) 

83 & 84 Pope's Essay on Man. 

85 Shelley's Skylark, Adonals, and 

other Poems. 

86 Dickens's Cricket on the 

Hearth. 

87 Spencer's Philosophy of Style* 

88 Lamb's Essays of Ella. 

89 Cowper's Task, Book IL 

90 Wordsworth's Selected Poems. 

91 Tennyson's The Holy Grail, and 

Sir Galahad. 

92 Addison's Cato. 

93 Irving's Westminster Abbey, 

and Christmas Sketches. 

94 & 95 Macaulay's Earl .of Chat- 

ham. Second Essay. 

96 Early Engrllsh Ballads. 

97 Skelton, Wyatt, and Surrey, 

(Selected Poems.) 

98 Edwin Arnold. (Selected Poems.) 

99 Caxton and Daniel. (Selections.) 

100 Fuller and Hooker. (Selections.) 

101 Marlowe's Jew of Malta. (Con- 

densed.) 

102-103 Macaulay's Essay on Mil- 
ton. 

104-105 Macaulay's Essay on Ad- 
dison. 

lOG Macaulay's Essay on Bos- 
well's Johnson. 



107 Man devi lie's Travels and Wy- 
clilTe's Bible. (Selections.) 

108-109 Macaulay's Essay on Fred- 
erick the Great. 

110-111 Milton's Samson Agonis- 
tes. I 

112-113-114 Franklin's Autobiog- 
raphy, 

115-116 Herodotus's Stories of 
Croesus, Cyrus, and Babylon. 

117 Irving's Alhambra. 

118 Burke's Present Discontents. 

119 Burke's Speech on Concilia- 

tion with American Colonies. 

120 Macaulay's Essay on Byron. 
121-132 Motley's Peter the Great. 

123 Emerson's American Scholar. 

124 Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum. 
135-126 Longfellow's Evangeline. 
127 Andersen's Danish Fairy Tales. 

(Selected.) 
138 Tennyson's The Coming of 
Arthur, and The Passing of 
Arthur. 

129 Lowell's The Vision of Sir 
Launfal, and other Poems. 

130 Whittier's Songs of Labor, and 

other Poems. 

131 Words of Abraham Lincoln. 

132 Grimm's German Fairy Tales* 
(Selected.) 

133 iEsop's Fables. (Selected.) 

134 Arabian Nights. Aladdin, or 

the ^Vonderful Lamp. 

135-36 The Psalter. 

137-38 Scott's Ivanhoe. (Con- 
densed.) 

139-40 Scott's Kenilworth. (Con- 
densed.) 

141-42 Scott's The Talisman. (Con- 
densed.) 

143 Gods and Heroes of the North. 

144-45 Pope's Iliad of Homer. 
(Selections from Boolfs I.-VIII.) 

146 Four Medifeval Chroniclers. 

147 Dante's Inferno. (Condensed.) 
148-49 The Book of Job. (Revised 

Version.) 

150 Bow-Wow and Mew-Mew. By 
Georgiana M. Craik. 

151 The Niirnberg Stove. By Ouida. 

152 Hayne's Speech. To which 
Webster replied. 

153 Alice's Adventures in Won- 
derland. (Condensed.) By Lewis 

Carroll. 

154-155 Defoe's Journal of the 
Plague. (Condensed.) 

156-157 More's Utopia. (Con- 
densed.) 



ADDITIONAL NUMBERS ON NEXT PAGE- 



MAYNARD'S ENGLISH CLASSIC SERIES.-No. 185- 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



ROBERT SOUTHEY 



WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH CRITICAL OPINIONS, 
AND EXPLANATORY NOTES 




T 7 ^«% ) -V, 

NEW YORK io^^ 

MAYNARD, MERRILL, & CO. 
1896 



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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



Robert Southey was born at Bristol, England, on the 
12th of August, 1774. He was the second son of Thomas 
Southey, a linen draper at Bristol, and his wife, for- 
merly Miss Hill, daughter of an attorney at Bedminster. 
Southey's childhood was principally spent at Bath, in the 
house of a maiden aunt, who kept him very quiet during 
the day, and took him to the theater almost nightly. " I 
had little propensity," he says, "to any boyish sports, and 
less expertness in them." He read widely for a child, 
however. " I went through Beaumont and Fletcher before 
I was eight years old." This was in addition to Shake- 
speare. Before he was fourteen he had read translations 
of the Italian poets Tasso and Ariosto, Pope's Homer, 
Spenser's "Fairy Queen," Sidney's "Arcadia," and had 
saved enough of his pocket money to purchase the works 
of the Jewish historian Josephus. 

At fourteen Southey went to Westminster, the famous 
English school. Here he spent four years, which must 
have contributed much to form his character and intellect, 
but of which we have no authentic records. It is known 
that he had numerous ambitious literary designs in his 
mind at this time. " Before I left school," he said, "I had 
formed the intention of exhibiting all the more prominent 
and poetical forms of mythology, which have at any time 
obtained among mankind, by making each the ground- 
work of an heroic poem. This gigantic conception was to 
bear fruit at a later time in such poems as " Thalaba " and 
"Kehama." 



4 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

Tliis boyish literary activity was destined, however, to 
be the cause of his downfall. In 1792 Southey and some 
other boys started a school periodical called The Flagellant^ 
which was intended to rouse the literary spirit of the 
school. In the fifth number of this periodical an ironical 
article on corporal punishment appeared from the pen of 
Southey. The argument was that flagellation formed a 
portion of the religious ceremonies of the heathen; that 
such ceremonies had been declared, in the writings of the 
ancient fathers, institutions of the devil, and that no part 
nor portion of such ceremonies should be permitted in a 
Christian country. Though the whole article was expressed 
in general terms, and the ^vriter might have intended it to 
apply only to the inhuman floggings in the army, it gave 
great offense to the authorities of the school, and a prose- 
cution was commenced against the publisher. Although 
Southey at once avowed the authorship and apologized, 
nothing would satisfy the head master but the private 
expulsion of the offender. That this was a needlessly 
harsh punishment there can be no doubt. 

An uncle who had defrayed the cost of Southey's educa- 
tion at Westminster and who believed in his ability, now 
came forward and sent him to Balliol College at Oxford. 
Here, soon after his father's death, he arrived " in a peril- 
ous state — a heart full of poetry and feeling, a head full of 
Rousseau and Werther, and my religious principles shaken 
by Gibbon." He soon was captivated by the view^s of a 
class of Utopian politicians then growing into notoriety, 
whose doctrines were fostered by the political events in 
America and Europe, and by the violence and corruption 
of existing governments. They believed, or professed to 
believe, that the power of one man over. another could not 
be exercised without crime, and that the business of a 
country could be transacted by the mutual consent of its 
citizens, without admitting the idea of authority. 

In this revolutionary frame of mind Southey arranged 



J 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 5 

with the poet Coleridge to found a colony in America, but 
the scheme fell through for lack of money. After this, 
Southey, who had been neglecting his studies, felt the 
necessity of looking about for some remunerative employ- 
ment. He had already written his poem "Joan of Arc," 
and found a publisher for it. This naturally inclined him 
to adopt the literary profession. 

In 1795 Southey married Edith Fricker, and immediately 
afterward spent six months traveling with his uncle in 
Portugal. On his return, after trying the study of law, he 
finally settled down at Greta Hall, Keswick, in the Lake 
district of England, made so famous as the home of the 
"Lake poets," Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey. 
From 1803 on to the time of his death he gave himself en- 
tirely to his literary work, and was as methodical in it as 
any business man. His sori says : ' ' His course of life was 
the most regular and simple possible. . . When it is said 
that breakfast was at nine, after a little reading, dinner at 
four, tea at six, supper at half-past nine, and the intervals 
filled up with reading and writing, except that he regularly 
walked between two and four, and took a short sleep before 
tea, the outlines of his day during those long seasons when 
he was in full work will have been given." 

In so short a sketch it is not possible to give a list of his 
works. His pen and brain were always at work. Epics, 
poems, ballads sufficient to fill volumes, biographies, histo- 
ries, innumerable articles, lengthy reviews, an immense 
correspondence, abstracts and journals, are the testimonies 
of his indefatigable assiduity. He was happiest when at 
work, and tore himself from his writing only when his 
health demanded relaxation. 

His tireless labors in the cause of letters were rewarded 
toward the end of his life by the offer of an editorial posi- 
tion on the London Times worth ten thousand dollars a 
year, by the offer of a baronetcy, and by his appointment 
as poet-laureate. 



6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

The death of his wife, to whom he was tenderly attached, 
was a great affliction, and he was never himself afterward. 
She died at Keswick on the 16th of November, 1837, the light 
of reason having been extinguished some years previously. 

The intense application of Sou they, his constant brain 
work, was now nearly over; his memory failed him, and 
he missed the comforts of home. Finally, as his daughters 
w^ere married and residing at a distance, he resolved on 
marrying again. It was as a nurse rather than as a wife 
that his old friend Caroline Bowles accepted him in 1839, 
and Southey died, after some years of impaired intelli- 
gence, on March 21st, 1843. 



CRITICAL OPINIONS 



But though in general we prefer Mr. Southey's poetry to 
his prose, we must make one exception. "The Life of 
Nelson " is, beyond all doubt, the most perfect and the 
most delightful of his works. No writer, perhaps, ever 
lived wliose talents so precisely qualified him to write the 
history of the great naval warrior. There were no fine 
riddles of the human heart to read, no theories to found, 
no hidden causes to develop, no remote consequences to 
predict. The character of the hero lay on the surface. 
The exploits were brilliant and picturesque. The necessity 
of adhering to the real course of events saved Mr. Southey 
from those faults which deform the original plan of almost 
every one of his poems, and which even his innumerable 
beauties of detail scarcely redeem. The subject did not 
require the exercise of those reasoning powers, the want of 
which is the blemish of his prose. It would not be easy to 
find in all literary history an instance of a more exact hit 
between wind and water. — Lord Macaulay. 



And of solid independent books in prose he published, 
besides the three biographies of Nelson, Wesley, and 
Bunyan, nearly a dozen substantive works, some of them 
of very great size. None of these is so well known as the 
biographies, especially those of Nelson and Wesley. The 
latter only just misses the very first rank among the longer 
biographies — those which enter into full detail and give 
documents. "The Life of Nelson," by common consent 

7 



8 CRITICAL OPINIONS 

of all the competent, does attain the first rank among 
biographies of the shorter class. It will probably be con- 
sidered by posterity one of the capital examples of that 
pedantic folly which is always repeating itself that persons, 
at best qualified to add footnotes of correction and amplifi- 
cation to it, have presumed in recent days to speak of it 
with disrespect. . . 

The characteristics of this wide and neglected champaign 
of letters, — a whole province of prose, as it may be called, 
— especially when we add the huge body of published 
letters, present the widest diversity of subject, and cannot 
fairly be said to sutfer from any monotony of style. To 
some tastes in the present day, indeed, Southey may seem 
flat. He scornfully repudiated, on more than one occa- 
sion, the slightest attempt at "fine writing," and ostensibly 
limited his efforts to the production of clear and limpid 
sentences in the best classical English. Not that he was by 
any means alarmed by an appearance of neologism now and 
then. His merely playful coinages in "The Doctor" and 
the " Letters " do not, of course, count; but precisian as he 
was, he was not of those precisians who will not have 
a word, however absolutely justified by analogy and prin- 
ciple, unless there is some definite authority for it. On 
the contrary he took the sounder course of actually reject- 
ing words with good authority but bad intrinsic titles. 
His sentences are of medium length, but inclining to the 
long rather than the short, and distinctly longer than 
the pattern, which the gradually increasing love of anti- 
thetic balance had made popular in the eighteenth 
century. . . 

But in all his prose writings, no matter what they be, 
even in those unlucky political " Essays," which he re- 
printed in two very pretty little volumes at the most 
unfortunate time and with the least fortunate result, he 
displays one of the very best prose styles of the century, 
perhaps the very best (unless Lockhart's, which is more 



CRITICAL OPINIONS 9 

technically faulty, be ranked with it) of the quiet and 
regular kind in Eijglish. — George Saintsbury. 

"Many lives of Nelson have been written. One is yet 
wanting' clear and concise enough to become a manual for 
the young sailor, which he may carry about with him till 
he has treasured up the example in his memory and in his 
heart. In attempting such a work, I shall write the eulogy 
of our great naval hero; for the best eulogy of Nelson is 
the faithful history of his actions; the best history that 
which shall relate them most perspicuously." — Preface to 
Southey's ' ' Life of Nelson. " 

Southey was a man toward well up in the fifties; hair 
gray, not yet hoary, well setting off his fine clear brown 
complexion; head and face both smallish, as indeed the 
figure was while seated; features finely cut; eyes, brow, 
mouth good in their kind — expressive all, and even vehe- 
mently so, but betokening rather keenness than depth 
either of intellect or character; a serious, human, honest, 
but sharp, almost fierce-looking, thin man, with very 
much of the militant in his aspect. In the eyes especially 
was a visible mixture of sorrow and anger, or of angry con- 
tempt, as if his indignant fight with the world had not yet 
ended in victory, but also that it never should in defeat. 
A man you were willing to hear speak. . . I recollect my 
astonishment when Southey at last completely rose from 
his chair to shake hands. He had onlj^ half risen and 
nodded on my coming in ; and all along I had counted 
him a lean little man; but now he shot suddenly aloft into 
a lean tall one, all legs, in shape and stature like a pair of 
tongs, which peculiarity my surprise doubtless exaggerated 
to me, but only made it the more notable and entertain- 
ing. — Thomas Carlyle (" Reminiscences "). 

The ^^ Life of Nelson " has been somewhat abridged in 
order to render it suitable for school use. 




i 



LOED NELSON 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 



CHAPTER I 

Horatio, son of Edmund and Catherine Nelson, was 
born September 29, 1758, in the parsonage-house of Burn- 
liam-Thorpe, a village in the county of Norfolk, of which 
his father was rector. The maiden name of his mother 
was Suckling ; her grandmother was an elder sister of Sir 5 
Robert Walpole, and this child was named after his god- 
father, the first Lord Walpole. Mrs. Nelson died in 1767, 
leaving eight out of eleven children. Her brother, 
Captain Maurice Suckling, of the navy, visited the wid- 
ower upon this event, and promised to take care of one of lo 
the boys. Three years afterward, when Horatio was only 
twelve years of age, being at home during the Christmas 
holidays, he read in the county newspaper that his uncle 
was appointed to the Raisonnable, of sixty-four guns. 
" Do, William," said he to a brother who was a year and 15 
a half older than himself, " write to my father and tell 
him that I should like to go to sea with Uncle Maurice." 
Mr. Nelson was then at Bath, whither he had gone for the 
recovery of his health; his circumstances were straitened, 
and he had no prospect of ever seeing them bettered ; he 20 
knew that it was the wish of providing for himself by 
which Horatio was chiefly actuated, and did not oppose 

« Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745). The great Whig minister of George I. 
'' Lord Walpole. The Jit^st Lord Walpole died February 5, 1757. Nelson's 
godfather was Horatio, second Lord Walpole. 



12 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

his resolution ; he understood also the boy's character, and 
had always said, that in whatever station he might be 
placed he would climb, if possible, to the very top of 
the tree. Accordingly Captain Suckling was written to. 
5 " What," said he in his answer, " has poor Horatio done, 
who is so weak, that he, above all the rest, should be sent 
to rough it out at sea? But let him come, and the first 
time we go into action a cannon-ball may knock off his 
head and provide for him at once. " 

10 It is manifest from these words that Horatio was not the 
boy whom his uncle would have chosen to bring up in his 
own profession. He was never of a strong body, and the 
ague, which at that time was one of the most common 
diseases in England, had greatly reduced his strength; yet 

15 he had already given proofs of that resolute heart and 
nobleness of mind which, during his whole career of labor 
and of glory, so eminently distinguished him. When a 
mere child he strayed a-birds'-nesting from his grand- 
mother's house in company with a cowboy: the dinner- 

20 hour elapsed; he was absent and could not be found, and 
the alarm of the family became very great, for they appre- 
hended that h% might have been carried off by gypsies. 
At length, after search had been made for him in various 
directions, he was discovered alone, sitting composedly by 

25 the side of a brook which he could not get over. "I 
wonder, child," said the old lady when she saw him, 
" that hunger and fear did not drive you home." " Fear! 
grandmamma," replied the future hero, "I never saw 
fear. What is it?" Once, after the winter holidays, 

30 when he and his brother William had set off on horseback 
to return to school, they came back because there had been 
a fall of snow, and William, who did not much like the 
journey, said it was too deep for them to venture on. 
"If that be the case," said the father, " you certainly shall 

35 not go; but make another attempt, and I will leave it to 
your honor. If the road is dangerous you may return ; 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 13 

but remember, boys, I leave it to your honor." The snow 
was deep enough to have afiforded them a reasonable 
excuse ; but Horatio was not to be prevailed upon to turn 
back. "We must go on," said he; "remember, brother, 
it was left to our honor ! " 5 

Early on a cold and dark spring morning Mr. Nelson's 
servant arrived at this school, at North Walsham, with 
the expected summons for Horatio to join his ship. The 
parting from his brother William, who had been for so 
many years his playmate and bed-fellow, was a painful lo 
effort, and was the beginning of those privations which 
are the sailor's lot through life. He accompanied his 
father to London. The Raisonnable was lying in the 
Medway. He was put into the Chatham stage, and on its 
arrival was set down with the rest of the passengers, and 15 
left to find his way on board as he could. After wander- 
ing about in the cold without being able to reach the ship, 
an officer observed the forlorn appearance of the boy, 
questioned him, and, happening to be acquainted with his 
uncle, took him home and gave him some refreshments. 20 
When he got on board Captain Suckling was not in the 
ship, nor had any person been apprised of the boy's com- 
ing. He paced the deck the whole remainder of the day, 
without being noticed by anyone; and it was not till the 
second day that somebody, as he expressed it, " took com- 25 
passion on him." 

The Raisonnable was paid oflP soon, and Captain Suck- 
ling was removed to the Triumph, then stationed as a 
guardship in the Thames. This was considered as too 

1* Medway. A river emptying into the mouth of the Thames. 

21 On board. In 1770, being twelve years old, he was rated " Midshipman," 
and served five months and one day in the Raisonnable. 

27 Paid off. A ship is " paid off " when the crew receive their pay and are 
discharged. 

29 Guardship. A vessel of war appointed to superintend marine affairs in a 
harbor or river, to see that the ships not in commission have their proper 



14 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

inactive a station for a boy, and Nelson was therefore sent 
a voyage to the West Indies in a merchant sliip. He 
returned a practical seaman, but with a hatred of the 
king's service. His uncle received him on board the 
5 Triumph on his return, and, discovering his dislike to 
the navy, took the best means of reconciling him to it. 
He held it out as a reward that if he attended well to his 
navigation he should go in the cutter and decked long-boat 
which was attached to the commanding officer's ship at 

10 Chatham. Thus he became a good pilot for vessels of that 
description, from Chatham to the Tower, and down the 
Swin Channel to the North Foreland, and acquired a con- 
fidence among rocks and sands of which he often felt the 
value. 

15 Nelson had not been many months on board the Tri- 
umph when his love of enterprise was excited by hearing 
that two ships (the Racehorse and Carcass) were fitting 
out for a voyage of discovery toward the North Pole. In 
consequence of the difficulties which were expected on 

20 such a service, these vessels were to take out effective men 
instead of the usual number of boys. This, however, did 
not deter him from soliciting to be received, and, by his 
uncle's interest, he was admitted as coxswain under 
Captain Lutwidge, second in command. 

25 They sailed from the Nore on the 4th of June ; on the 
6th of the following month they were in latitude 79° 

watch kept, by sending her guard-boats round them every night ; and, in time 
of war, to receive impressed seamen. 

12 The Swin Channel. The most important of tlie northern channels at 
the moutli of the Thames. 

18 North Pole. To determine how far navigation was practicable toward 
the North Pole, and whether any passage could be discovered from the Arctic 
to the Pacific Ocean. " It was conjectured that our former navigators had 
kept too near land, and so had found the sea frozen far north, because the land 
hinders the free motion of the tide ; but in the wide ocean, where the waves 
tumble at their full convenience, it is imagined that the frost does not take 
eSect.'" —BosweWs Life of Johnson, chap, xxxix. 

86 The Nore Light. Nearly east of Sheerness, and southeast of Southend. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 15 

56' 39". longitude 9° 43' 30" E. The next day the Race- 
horse was beset with ice; but they hove her through with 
ice anchors. Captain Phipps continued ranging along the 
ice nortliward and westward till the 34th; he then tried to 
the eastward. On the 30th he was in latitude 80® 13', 5 
longitude 18° 48' E., among the islands and in the ice, with 
no appearance of an opening for the ships. Here they were 
becalmed in a large bay, everywhere, as far as they could 
see, surrounded with ice. On the next day the ice closed 
upon them, and no opening was to be seen anywhere, lo 
except a hole, or lake, as it might be called, of about a mile 
and a half in circumference, where the ships lay. The 
men were playing on the ice all day ; but the Greenland 
pilots, who were further than they had ever been before, 
and considered that the season was far advancing, were 15 
alarmed at being thus beset. 

The next day there was not the smallest opening; the 
ships were within less than two lengths of each other, 
separated by ice, and neither having room to turn. Young 
Nelson exposed himself in a daring manner. One night, 20 
during the midwatch, he stole from the ship with one of 
his comrades, taking advantage of a rising fog, and set out 
over the ice in pursuit of a bear. It was not long before 
they were missed. The fog thickened, and Captain Lut- 
widge and his officers became exceedingly alarmed for 25 
their safety. Between three and four in the morning the 
weather cleared, and the two adventurers were seen, at 
a considerable distance from the ship, attacking a huge 
bear. The signal for them to return was immediately 
made ; Nelson's comrade called upon him to obey it, 30 
but in vain; his musket had flashed in the pan; their 
ammunition was expended, and a chasm in the ice, which 
divided him from the bear, probably preserved his life. 
Captain Lutwidge, seeing his danger, fired a gun, which 
had the desired effect of frightening the beast; and the boy 35 
then returned, somewhat afraid of the consequences of his 



16 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

trespass. The captain reprimanded liim sternly, and 
desired to know what motive he could have for hunting 
a bear. "Sir," said he, "I wished to kill the bear, that 
I might carry the skin to my father." 
5 A party was now sent to an island, about twelve miles 
oft" (named Walden's Island in the chart, from the mid- 
shipman who was intrusted with this service), to see where 
the open water lay. They come back with information 
that the ice, though close all about them, was open to 

10 the westward, around the point by which they came in. 

There was but one alternative, either to wait the event of 

the weather upon the ships, or to betake themselves to the 

boats. 

On the 7th of August they began to haul the boats over 

15 the ice. Nelson having command of the four-oared cutter. 
The men behaved excellently well, like true British sea- 
men ; they seemed reconciled to the thought of leaving the 
ships, and had full confidence in their officers. About 
noon the ice appeared rather more open near the vessels ; 

20 and as the wind was easterly, though there was but little of 
it, the sails were set, and they got about a mile to the west- 
ward. The commander therefore resolved to carry on both 
attempts together, moving the boats constantly, and taking 
every opportunity of getting the ships through. A party 

25 was sent out next day to the westward, to examine the 
state of the ice ; they returned with tidings that it was very 
heavy arid close, consisting chiefly of large fields. The 
ships, however, moved, and the ice itself was drifting 
westward. There was a thick fog, so that it was impossible 

30 to ascertain what advantage had been gained. It contin- 
ued on the 9th; but the ships were moved a little through 
some verj'- small openings. In the course of the day they 
got past the boats, and took them on board again. On the 
morrow the wind sprang up to the N. N. E. . All sail was 

35 set, and the ships forced their way through a great deal of 
very heavy ice. They frequently struck, and with such 



THE LIFE OF NELSON IV 

force that one stroke broke the shank of the Racehorse's 
best bower anchor; but the vessels made way, and by noon 
they had cleared the ice, and were out at sea. 

The ships were paid off shortly after their return to 
England, and Nelson was then placed by his uncle with 5 
Captain Farmer, in the Seahorse, of twenty guns, then 
going out to the East Indies in the squadron under Sir 
Edward Hughes. His good conduct attracted the atten- 
tion of the master (afterward Captain Surridge), in whose 
watch he was; and, upon his recommendation, the captain lo 
rated him as a midshipman. At this time his countenance 
was florid, and his appearance rather stout and athletic ; 
but when he had been about eighteen months in India he 
felt the effects of that climate, so perilous to European con- 
stitutions. He was reduced almost to a skeleton; the use 15 
of his limbs was for some time entirely lost, and the only 
hope that remained was from a voyage home. 

Accordingly, he was brought home by Captain Pigot, in 
the Dolphin ; and had it not been for the attentive and 
careful kindness of that officer on the way. Nelson would 20 
never have lived to reach his native shores. Long after- 
ward, when the name of Nelson^was known as widely as 
that of England itself, he spoke of the feelings which he at 
this time endured. " I felt impressed," said he, " with a 
feeling that I should never rise in my profession. My 25 
mind was staggered with a view of the difficulties I had to 
surmount, and the little interest I possessed. I could dis- 
cover no means of reaching the object of my ambition. 
After a long and gloomy reverie, in which I almost wished 
myself overboard, a sudden glow of patriotism was kindled 30 
within me, and presented my king and country as my 
patron. ' Well, then, ' I exclaimed, ' I will be a hero ! and, 
confiding in Providence, brave every danger! ' " 

His interest, however, was far better than he imagined. 

3 Bower anchor. That carried at the bow of the ship. 



18 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

During his absence Captain Suckling- had been made 
Comptroller of the Navy; his health had materially im- 
proved upon the voyage ; and, as soon as the Dolphin was 
paid off, he was appointed acting lieutenant in the Worces- 

5 ter, then going out with convoy to Gibraltar. Soon after 
his return, on the 8th of April, 1777, he passed his examina- 
tion for a lieutenancy. 

The next day Nelson received his commission as second 
lieutenant of the Loivestoffe frigate, Captain William 

10 Locker, then fitting out for Jamaica. 

American and French privateers, under American colors, 
were at that time harassing our trade in the West Indies ; 
even a frigate was not sufficiently active for Nelson, and 
he repeatedly got appointed to the command of one of the 

15 Loivestoffe' s tenders. During one of their cruises the 
Lowestoffe captured an American letter-of-marque ; it was 
blowing a gale, and a heavy sea running. The first lieu- 
tenant being ordered to board the prize, went below to put 
on his hanger. It happened to be mislaid ; and, while he 

20 was seeking it. Captain Locker came on deck. Perceiving 
the boat still alongside, and in danger every moment of 
being swamped, and being extremely anxious that the 
privateer should be instantly taken in charge, because he 

2 Comptroller of the Navy. An officer whose duty it is to examine 
accounts. 

15 Tender. A small vessel appointed to attend on ships of war or squad- 
rons, to communicate with the shore, to receive volunteers and impressed 
seamen, and to carry intelligence or orders from one place to another. 

16 Letter-of-marque. Originally a letter from a government authorizing its 
bearer to take the law into his own hands as regards a hostile nation ; called 
also letter of reprisal. Now, the commission every captain of an armed ship 
must be prepared to produce, under penalty of being treated as a pirate ; or, 
as in the text, the ship so commissioned. The origin of the word is doubtful. 
It has been said to authorize the bearer to open a inarTcet ; i. e., to dispose of 
prizes taken from the enemy (Wedgwood) ; to cross the mark or boundary, 
and to plunder, an old meaning of the French marguer. See Littre under 
marque. 

" Hanger. A short broad sword, curved near the point. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 19 

feared that it would otherwise founder, he exclaimed: 
" Have I no officer in the ship who can board the prize ? " 
Nelson did not offer himself immediately, waiting, with 
his usual sense of propriety, for the first lieutenant's 
return; but hearing the master volunteer, he jumped into 5 
the boat, saying, " It is my turn now, and if I come back, 
it is yours." 

About this time he lost his uncle. Captain Locker, 
however, who had perceived the excellent qualities of Nel- 
son, and formed a friendship for him, which continued lo 
during Iiis life, recommended him warmly to Sir Peter 
Parker, then commander-in-chief upon tliat station. In 
consequence of this recommendation he was removed into 
the Bristol flagship. He soon became first lieutenant, and, 
on the 8th of December, 1778, was appointed commander 15 
of the Badger brig. While the Badger was lying in Mon- 
tego Bay, Jamaica, the Glasgoiv, of twenty guns, came in 
and anchored there, and in two hours was in flames, the 
steward having set fire to her while stealing rum out of the 
after-hold. Her crew were leaping into the water, when 20 
Nelson came up in his boats, made them throw their powder 
overboard, and point their guns upward; and, by his pres- 
ence of mind and personal exertions, prevented the loss 
of life which would otherwise have ensued. On the 11th of 
June, 1779, he was made post into the Hinchinbrook, of 25 
twenty-eight guns, an enemy's merchantman, sheathed 
with wood, which had been taken into the service. 

Nelson was fortunate in possessing good interest; his 
promotion had been almost as rapid as it could be, and 
before he had attained the age of twenty-one he liad gained 30 
that rank which brought all the honors of the service 
within his reach. No opportunity, indeed, had yet been 
given him of distinguishing himself; but he was thoroughly 



25 Made Post ; i. e., Post-Captain. Captain by position, as distinguished 
from tlie commander ; only captain by courtesy. 



20 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

master of his profession, and his zeal and ability were 
acknowledged wherever he was known. Count d'Estaing, 
with a fleet of one hundred and twenty-five sail, men-of- 
war and transports, and a reputed force of five-and-twenty 
5 thousand men, threatened Jamaica from St. Domingo. 
Nelson offered his services to the Admiral and to Gov- 
ernor-general Bailing, and was appointed to command the 
batteries of Fort Charles at Port Royal. Not more than 
seven thousand men could be mustered for the defense of 

ID the island— a number wholly inadequate to resist the force 
which threatened them. D'Estaing, however, was either 
not aware of his own superiority, or not equal to the com- 
mand with which he was intrusted; he attempted nothing 
with this formidable armament, and General Bailing was 

15 thus left to execute a project which he had formed against 
the Spanish colonies. 

This project was, to take Fort San Juan, on the river of 
that name, which flows from Lake Nicaragua into the 
Atlantic; make himself master of the lake itself, and of the 

20 cities of Grenada and Leon ; and thus cut off the commu- 
nication of the Spaniards between their northern and 
southern possessions in America. 

Early in the year 1780, five hundred men, destined for 
this service, were convoyed by Nelson from Port Royal to 

25 Cape Gracias a Bios, in Honduras. Not a native was to be 
seen when they landed; they had been taught that the 
English came with no other intent than that of enslaving 
them, and sending them to Jamaica. After a while, how- 
ever, one of them ventured down, confiding in his knowl- 

30 edge of one of the party, and by his means the neighboring 
tribes were conciliated with presents, and brought in. 
The troops were encamped on a swampy and unwholesome 
plain, where they were joined by a party of the Seventy- 



2 Count d'Estaing (1729-1794). A French admiral. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 21 

ninth Regiment, from Black River, who were already in a 
deplorable state of sickness. 

Having- remained here a month, they proceeded, anchor- 
ing frequently, along the Mosquito shore to collect their 
Indian allies, who were to furnisli proper boats for the 5 
river, and to accompany them. They reached the river 
San Juan March 24; and here, according to his orders, 
Nelson's services were to terminate; but not a man in the 
expedition had ever been up the river, or knew the dis- 
tances of any fortification from its mouth; and he, not lo 
being one who would turn back when so much w-as to be 
done, resolved to carry the soldiers up. About two hun- 
dred, therefore, were embarked, and they began their 
voyage. It was the latter end of the dry season, the worst 
time for such an expedition; the river was consequently 15 
low. Indians were sent forward through narrow channels 
between shoals and banks, and the men were frequently 
obliged to quit the boats and exert their utmost strength to 
drag or thrust them along. 

On the 9th of April they reached an island in the river 20 
called San Bartolomeo, which the Spaniards had fortified, 
as an outpost, with a small semi-circular battery, manned 
with sixteen or eighteen men. It commanded the river in 
a rapid and difficult part of the navigation. Nelson, at the 
head of a few of his seamen, leaped upon the beach. The 25 
ground upon which he sprung was so muddy that he had 
some difficulty in extricating himself, and lost his slioes: 
bare- footed, however, he advanced, and, in his own phrase, 
hoarded the battery. In this resolute attempt he was 
bravely supported by the well-known Despard, at that time 3° 
a captain in the army. 



30 Despard. In the year 1803 this brave but ill-fated man conspired with a 
party of soldiers, at a house in Oakley Street, Lambeth, to assassinate King 
George III. on his way to open Parliament. Being arrested and brought to 
trial, he was executed at Horsemonger Lane jail. Several Honduras merchants, 



22 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

The castle of San Juan is thirty-two miles below the Lake 
of Nicaragua, from which the river issues, and sixty-nine 
from its mouth. The English appeared before it on the 
11th, two days after they had taken San Bartolomeo. 

5 Nelson's advice was that it should instantly be carried by 
assault: but Nelson was not the commander; and it was 
thought proper to observe all the formalities of a siege. 
Ten days were wasted before this could be commenced : it 
was a work more of fatigue than of danger; even the 

10 Indians sunk under it. The place surrendered on the 24th. 
But victory procured to the conquerors none of that relief 
which had been expected ; the castle was worse than a prison. 
The huts, which served for hospitals, were surrounded 
with filth and with the putrefying hides of slaughtered 

1 5 cattle— almost sufficient of themselves to have engendered 
l^estilence: and when, at last, orders were given to 
erect a convenient hospital, the contagion had become so 
general that there were none who could work at it. Five 
months the English persisted in what may be called this 

20 war against nature; they then left a few men, who seemed 
proof against the climate, to retain the castle till the 
Spaniards should choose to retake it, and make them pris- 
oners. The rest abandoned their baleful conquest. Eigh- 
teen hundred men were sent to different posts upon this 

25 wretched expedition: not more than 380 ever returned. 

The Hinchinbrook's complement consisted of 200 men ; 87 

took to their beds in one night, and of the whole crew not 

10 survived. 

Nelson himself was saved by a timely removal. In a few 

30 days after the commencement of the siege, he was seized 
with the prevailing dysentery : meantime Captain Glover 
died, and Nelson was appointed to succeed him in the Janus, 
of forty-four guns. He returned to the harbor the day 



to whom Despard was personally known, positively asserted that his insanity 
was indisputable.— C/arAe and Mc Arthur's Life of Nelson. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 23 

before San Juan surrendered, and immediately sailed for 
Jamaica in the sloop which brought the news of his 
appointment. He was, however, so greatly reduced by the 
disorder that when they reached Port Royal he was car- 
ried ashore in his cot; and finding himself, after a partial 5 
amendment, unable to retain the command of his new 
sliip, he was compelled to ask leave to return to England, 
as the only means of recovery. Captain (afterward Admi- 
ral) Cornwallis took him home in the Lion ; and to his 
care and kindness Nelson believed himself indebted for his lo 
life. In three months he recovered, and immediately has- 
tened to London, and applied for employment. After an 
interval of about four months he was appointed to the 
Albemarle. 

His health was not yet thoroughly re-established; and 15 
while lie was employed in getting his ship ready, he again 
became so ill as hardly to be able to keep out of bed. Yet 
in this state, still suffering from the fatal effect of a West 
Indian climate, he was sent to the North Seas, and kept 
there the whole winter. 20 

On his return to the Downs, while he was ashore visiting 
the senior officer, there came on so heavy a gale that almost 
all the vessels drove, and a store-ship came ath wart-hawse 
of the Albemarle. Nelson feared she would drive on the 
Goodwin Sands: he ran to the beach; but even the Deal 25 
boatmen thought it impossible to get on board, such was 
the violence of the storm. At length some of the most 
intrepid offered to make the attempt for fifteen guineas : 

21 The Downs. A roadstead formed by Kent on the west, and the Goodwin 
Sands on the cast. 

23 Athwart-hawse. The hawse-holes (to hawse, from hausser, to raise) 
are tlie holes in the bow of a ship through which the anchor cable runs. The 
hawse is the range of the cables when a ship is moored by two anchors, one on 
tlie starboard, the other on the larboard bow. Hence, to come to athwart- 
haiv^e, is to cross the bow of another vessel. In Nelson's own account of the 
accident, he says, " A large East India store-ship drove from her anchors, and 
cainc i)n board ns.''— Nelson's Dispatches. 



24 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

and, to the astonishment and fear of all the beholders, he 
embarked during the height of the tempest. With great 
difficulty and imminent danger he succeeded in reaching 
her. She lost her bowsprit and foremast, but escaped fur- 
5 ther injury. He was now ordered to Quebec. 

During her first cruise on that station, the Albemarle 
captured a fishing schooner, which contained, in her cargo, 
nearly all the property that her master possessed, and the 
poor fellow had a large family at home, anxiously expect- 

lo ing him. Nelson employed him as a pilot in Boston Bay, 
then restored him the schooner and cargo, and gave him a 
certificate to secure him against being captured by any 
other vessel. The man came ofiP afterward to the Albe- 
marle, at the hazard of his life, with a present of sheep, 

15 poultry, and fresh provisions. A most valuable supply it 
proved ; for the scurvy was raging on board : this was in 
the middle of August, and the ship's company had not had 
a fresh meal since the beginning of April. The certificate 
was preserved at Boston in memory of an act of unusual 

20 generosity. 

The Albemarle was under orders to convoy a fleet of 
transports to New York. *'A very pretty job," said her 
captain, ' ' at this late season of the year [October was far 
advanced], for our sails are at this moment frozen to the 

25 yards." On his arrival at Sandy Hook he waited on the 
commander-in-chief. Admiral Digby, who told him he was 
come on a fine station for making prize-money. "Yes, 
sir," Nelson made answer; "but the West Indies is the 
station for honor." Lord Hood, with a detachment of Rod- 

30 ney's victorious fleet, was at that time in Sandy Hook : he 
had been intimate with Captain Suckling: and Nelson, who 
was desirous of nothing but honor, requested him to ask 
for the Albemarle, that he might go to that station where it 
was most likely to be obtained. Admiral Digby reluctantly 

35 parted with him. His professional merit was already well 
known; and Lord Hood, on introducing him to Prince 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 25 

William Henry, as the Duke of Clarence was then called, 
told the prince, if he wished to ask any question respecting 
naval tactics, Captain Nelson could give him as much in- 
formation as any officer in the fleet. The duke, who, to his 
own honor, became from that time the firm friend of Nel- 5 
son, describes him as appearing the merest boy of a captain 
he had ever seen, dressed in a full-lace uniform, an old-fash- 
ioned waistcoat with long flaps, and his lank unpowdered 
hah' tied in a stiff Hessian tail of extraordinary length ; 
making altogether so remarkable a figure, " that," says the lo 
duke, " I had never seen anything like it before, nor could 
I imagine who he was, nor what he came about. But his 
address and conversation were irresistibly pleasing; and 
when he spoke on professional subjects, it was with an 
enthusiasm that showed he was no common being." 15 

Tidings soon arrived that the preliminaries of peace had 
been signed; and the Albemarle returned to England, and 
was paid off. Nelson's first business, after he got to London, 
even before he went to see his relations, was to attempt to 
get the wages due to his men, for the various ships in which 20 
they had served during the war. " The disgust of seamen 
to the navy," he said, " was all ov^ing to the infernal plan 
of turning them over from ship to ship ; so that men could 
not be attached to the officers, nor the officers care the 
least about the men." Yet he himself was so beloved by 25 
his men that his whole ship's company offered, if he could 
get a ship, to enter for her immediately. 



1 Duke of Clarence. Then a midshipman on board the Barfieur; afterward 
William IV. 

9 Hessian tail. Frederick William I. of Prugeia, was the first to adopt 
the pigtail (1713) as a simplification on the wig. He introduced it into his 
array, and not only did the other European armies follow his example, but it 
became a fashionable part of dress. This lasted until the beginning of the 
present century, when it gradually disappeared. It was, however, longest 
retained in the Hessian army ; till after 1820. As the Hessian soldier was very 
familiar to Englishmen, sixteen thousand having been brought over in 1756, 
when there was fear of an invasion, just as they were afterward bought for the 



26 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

CHAPTER II 

"I HAVE closed the wai'/' said Nelson, in one of his let- 
ters, " without a fortune ; but there is not a speck in my 
character. True honor, I hope, predominates in my mind 
far above riches." 
5 In March he was appointed to the Boreas, twenty-eight 
guns, going to the Leeward Islands, as a ci'uiser, on the 
peace establishment. His ship was full of young midship- 
men, of whom there were not less than thirty on board: 
and happy were they whose lot it was to be placed with 

JO such a captain. If he perceived that a boy was afraid at 
first going aloft, he would say to him, in a friendly man- 
ner: " Well, sir, I am going a race to the mast-head, and 
beg that I may meet you there." The poor little fellow 
instantly began to climb, and got up how he could — Nel- 

15 son never noticed in what manner, but, when they met in 

the top, spoke cheerfully to him ; and would say, how much 

any person was to be pitied who fancied that getting up was 

either dangerous or difficult. 

The Americans were at this time trading with our islands, 

20 taking advantage of the register of their ships, which had 
been issued while they were British subjects. Nelson 
knew that, by the Navigation Act, no foreigners, directly 
or indirectly, are permitted to carry on any trade with these 
possessions: he knew, also, that the Americans had made 

25 themselves foreigners with regard to England; they had 
broken the ties of blood and language, and acquired the 
independence which they had been provoked to claim, 

American Revolution, and tlie Irish rebellion of 1798, it is not improbable that 
this is the explanation of its being called a Hessian tail. 

22 Navigation Act. In order to cripple the commerce of Holland, Parlia- 
ment, in 1651, passed the famous " Navigation Act," which prohibited all 
nations from importing any merchandise into England or her colonies, 
except in English ships, or in the ships of the country where the goods were 
produced. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 27 

unhappily for themselves, before they were fit for it ; and he 
was resolved that they should derive no profit from those 
ties. In November, when the squadron, having arrived at 
Barbadoes, was to separate, with no other orders than those 
for examining anchorages, and the usual inquiries concern- 5 
ing wood and water. Nelson asked his friend Collingwood, 
tlien captain of the Mediator, whose opinion he knew upon 
the subject, to accompany him to the commander-in-chief, 
whom lie then respectfully asked whetlier they were not to 
attend to the commerce of the country, and see that the 10 
Navigation Act was respected — that appearing to him to be 
the intent of keeping men-of-war upon this station in time 
of peace. Sir Richard Hughes replied, he had no particular 
orders, neither had the Admiralty sent him any acts of par- 
liament. Upon this Nelson produced the statutes, read the 15 
words of the act, and apparently convinced the commander- 
in-chief that men-of-war, as he said, " were sent abroad for 
some other purpose than to be made a show of." Accord- 
ingly, orders were given to enforce the Navigation Act. 

Collingwood, in i\\e; Mediator, and his brother, Winefred 20 
Collingwood, in the Rattler, actively co-operated with 
Nelson. The custom houses were informed that after 
a certain day all foreign vessels found in the ports would 
be seized; and many were in consequence seized, and con- 
demned in the Admiralty Court. When the Boreas arrived 25 
at Nevis, she found four American vessels deeply laden, 
and with wliat are called the island colors flying— white, 
with a red cross. They were ordered to hoist their proper 
flag, and depart within eight-and-forty-hours, but they 
refused to obey, denying that they were Americans. Some 3c 
of their crews were then examined in Nelson's cabin, 
where the judge of the Admiralty happened to be present. 
The case was plain ; they confessed that they were Ameri- 
— , 

!■* The Admiralty. The department of the Government which has authority 
over- naval affairs. 



28 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

cans, and that the ships, hull, and cargo, were wholly 
American property: upon which he seized them. This 
raised a storm: the planters, the custom house, and the 
governor, were all against him. Subscriptions were 
5 opened, and presently filled, for the purpose of cari'ving 
on the cause in behalf of the American captains: and the 
admiral, whose flag was at that time in the road, stood 
neutral. But the Americans and their abettors were not 
content with defensive law. The marines whom he had 

10 sent to secure the ships had prevented some of the masters 
from going ashore; and those persons, by whose deposi- 
tions it appeared that the vessels and cargoes were Ameri- 
can property, declared that they had given their testimony 
under bodily fear, for that a man with a drawn sword in 

15 his hand had stood over them the whole of the time. A 
rascally lawyer, whom the part}^ employed, suggested this 
story ; and as the sentry at the cabin door was a man with 
a drawn sword, the Americans made no scruple of swear- 
ing to this ridiculous falsehood, and commencing prosecu- 

20 tions against him accordingly. They laid their damages 
at the enormous amount of forty thousand pounds; 
and Nelson was obliged to keep close on board his 
own ship, lest he should be arrested for a sum for 
which it would have been impossible to find bail. 

25 The marshal frequently came on board to arrest him, 
but was always prevented by the address of the first 
lieutenant, Mr. Wallis. Had he been taken, such was 
the temper of the people, that it was certain he would 
have been cast for the whole sum. One of his officers, one 

30 day, in speaking of the restraint which he was thus com- 
pelled to suffer, happened to use the word pity! '* Pity ! " 
exclaimed Nelson : ' ' Pity ! did you say ? I shall live, 
sir, to be envied ! and to that point I shall always direct my 

7 Flag in the road. Whose flagship was at that time in the roadstead. 
29 Cast for the whole sum. Obliged by the court to pay the whole sum 
demanded as damages. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 29 

course." Eight weeks he remained under this state of 
duresse. During that time the trial respecting these de- 
tained ships came on in the Court of Admiralty. He went 
on shore under a protection for the day from the judge; 
but, notwithstanding this, the marshal was called upon to 5 
take that opportunity of arresting him, and the merchants 
promised to indemnify him for so doing. The judge, how- 
ever, did his duty, and threatened to send the marshal to 
prison if he attempted to violate the protection of the 
court. Mr. Herbert, the president of Nevis, behaved with lo 
singular generosity upon this occasion. Though no man 
was a greater sufferer by the measures which Nelson had 
pursued, he offered in court to become his bail for ten 
thousand pounds, if he chose to suffer the arrest. The 
lawyer whom he had chosen proved to be an able as well 15 
as an honest man ; and, notwithstanding the opinions and 
pleadings of most of the counsel of the different islands, 
who maintained that ships of war were not justified in 
seizing American vessels without a deputation from the 
customs, the law was so explicit, the case so clear, and Nel- 20 
son pleaded his own cause so well, that the four ships were 
condemned. During the progress of this business he sent 
a memorial home to the king: in consequence of which 
orders were issued that he should be defended at the 
expense of the Crown. 25 

He was at this time wooing the niece of his friend the 
president; the widow of Dr. Nisbet, a physician. She had 
one child, a son, by name Josiah, who was three years old. 
One day Mr. Herbert, who had hastened, half-dressed, to 
receive Nelson, exclaimed, on returning to his dressing 30 
room, "Good Heavens! if I did not find that great-little 
man, of whom everybody is so afraid, playing in the next 
room, under the dining table, with Mrs. Nisbet's child!" 
A few days afterward Mrs. Nisbet herself was first intro- 
duced to him, and thanked him for the partiality which he 35 
had shown her little boy. Her manners were mild and 



30 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

winning, and the captain, whose heart was easily suscepti- 
ble of attachment, found no such imperious necessity for 
subduing his inclinations as had twice before withheld him 
from marrying. They were married on March 11, 1787; 
5 Prince William Henry, who had come out to the West In- 
dies the preceding winter, being present, by his own desire, 
to give away the bride. Mr. Herbert, her uncle, was at 
this time so much displeased with his only daughter that he 
had resolved to disinherit her, and leave his whole fortune, 

lo which was very great, to his niece. But Nelson, whose 
nature was too noble to let him profit by any act of injus- 
tice, interfered, and succeeded in reconciling the president 
to his child. 

During his stay upon this station he had ample opportu- 

15 nity of observing the scandalous practices of the contract- 
ors, prize agents, and other persons in the West Indies 
connected with the naval service. When he was first left 
with the command, and bills were brought him to sign for 
money which was owing for goods purchased for the navy, 

20 he required the original vouchers, that he might examine 
whether those goods had been really purchased at the mar- 
ket price; but to produce vouchers would not have been 
convenient, and therefore was not the custom. Vouchers, 
he found, in that country, were no check whatever: the 

25 principle was, "that a thing was always worth what it 
would bring" ; and the merchants were in the habit of sign- 
ing vouchers for each other, without even the aJDpearance 
of looking at the articles. These accounts he sent home to 
the different departments which had been defrauded, but 

30 the peculators were too powerful; and they succeeded not 
merely in impeding inquiry, hut even in raising prejudices 



4 March ii, 1787. The actual date was March 12 ; for Lady Nelson, writ- 
ing to her husband, March 11, 1797, immediately after she iTad heard of the 
battle of St. Vincent, says, " To-morrow, our wedding day, when it gave me a 
dear husband, and my child the best of fathers."— iVc/so/i's Dispatches. 






THE LIFE OH NELSON 31 

against Nelson at the board of Admiralty, which it was 
many years before he could subdue. 

Owing- probably to these prejudices, and the influence of 
the peculators, he was treated, on his return to England, in 
a manner which had nearly had driven him from the serv- 5 
ice. On the morning when orders w^ere received to prepare 
the Boreas for being paid off, he expressed his joy to the 
senior officer in the Med way; saying, "It will release me 
forever from an ungrateful service, for it is my firm and 
unalterable determination, never again to set my foot on lo 
board a king's ship. Immediately after my arrival in town 
I shall wait on the First Lord of the Admiralty, and resign 
my commission." The officer to whom he thus communi- 
cated his intentions behaved in the wisest and most friendly 
manner; for finding it vain to dissuade him in his present 15 
state of feeling, he secretly interfered with the First Lord to 
save him from a step so injurious to himself, little foresee- 
ing how deeply the welfare and honor of England were at 
that moment at stake. This interference produced a letter 
from Lord Howe, the day before the ship was paid off, inti- 20 
mating a wish to see Captain Nelson as soon as he arrived 
in town: when, being pleased with his conversation, and 
perfectly convinced by what was then explained to him, of 
the propriety of his conduct, he desired that he might 
present him to the king on the first levee day : and the gra- 25 
cious manner in which Nelson was then received effectually 
removed his resentment. 

Encouraged by the conduct of Lord Howe, and by this 
reception. Nelson renewed his attack upon the peculators 
with fresh spirit. He had interviews with Mr. Eose, Mr. 30 

20 Lord Howe (1725-1799). A distinguished admiral, and at this lime first 
lord of the Admiralty. 

30 George Rose (1744-1818). President of the Board of Trade. 

30 William Pitt (1759-1806). Second eon of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, 
and at this time prime minister. He was an able and successful statesman in 
difficult times. 



32 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Pitt, and Sir Charles Middleton ; to all of whom he satis- 
factorily proved his charges. In consequence, it is said, 
these very extensive public frauds were at length put in a 
proper train to be provided against in future; his represen- 
5 tations were attended to ; and every step which he recom- 
mended was adopted; the investigation was put into a 
proper course, which ended in the detection and punish- 
ment of some of the culprits; an immense saving was 
made to Government, and thus its attention was directed 

10 to similar peculation in other parts of the colonies. 

Nelson took his wife to his father's parsonage, meaning 
only to pay him a visit before they went to France; a 
project he had formed for the sake of acquiring a compe- 
tent knowledge of the French language. But his father 

15 could not bear to lose him thus unnecessarily. The sight 
of his son, he declared, had given him new life. "But, 
Horatio," said he, "it would have been better that I had 
not been thus cheered, if I am so soon to be bereaved of 
you again. Let me, my good son, see you whilst I can. 

20 My age and infirmities increase, and I shall not last long." 
To such an appeal there could be no reply. Nelson took up 
his abode at the parsonage, and amused himself with the 
sports and occupations of the country. Sometimes he 
busied himself with farming the glebe; sometimes spent 

25 the greater part of the day in the garden, where he would 
dig as if for the mere pleasure of wearying himself. Some- 
times he went a-birds'-nesting like a boy; and in these 
expeditions Mrs. Nelson always, by his express desire, ac- 
companied him. Coursing was his favorite amusement. 

30 Shooting, as he practiced it, was far too dangerous for his 
companions: for he carried his gun upon the full cock, as 
if he were going to board an enemj^ ; and the moment a 
bird rose he let fly, without ever putting the fowling-piece 



1 Sir Charles Middleton (1726-1813). An English naval oflScer of some 
distinction, and comptroller of the fleet. 



. THE LIFE OF NELSON 33 

to his shoulder. It is not, therefore, extraordinary that 
liis having- once shot a partridge should be remembered by 
his family among- the remarkable events of his life. 

But his time did not pass away thus without some vexa- 
tious cares to ruffle it. The affair of the American ships 5 
was not yet over, and he was again pestered with threats 
of prosecution. "I have written them word," said he, 
" that I will have nothing- to do with them, and they must 
act as they think proper. Government, I suppose, will do 
what is right, and not leave me in the lurch. We have lo 
heard enough lately of the consequences of the Navigation 
Act to this country. They may take my person, but if six- 
pence would save me from prosecution, I would not give 
it." It was his great ambition at this time to possess a 
pony; and having resolved to purchase one, he went to 15 
a fair for that purpose. During his absence two men 
abruptly entered the parsonage and inquired for him. 
They then asked for Mrs. Nelson, and after they had made 
her repeatedly declare that she was really and truly the 
captain's wife, presented her with a writ, or notification, 20 
on the part of the American captains, who now laid their 
damages at twenty thousand pounds, and they charged her 
to give it to her husband on his return. Nelson having 
bought his pony, came home with it in high spirits. He 
called out his wife to admire his purchase and listen to all 25 
its excellences ; nor was it till his glee had in some meas- 
ure subsided that the paper could be presented to him. 
His indignation was excessive, and in the apprehension 
that he should be exposed to the anxieties of the suit and 
tlie ruinous consequences which might ensue, he exclaimed, 30 
"This affront I did not deserve ! But I'll be trifled with no 
longer. I will write immediately to the Treasury, and if 
Government will not support riie I am resolved to leave the 
country." Accordingly, he informed the Treasury that if 
a satisfactory answer were not sent to him by return of 35 
post, he should take refuge in France. To this he expected 



34 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

he should be driven, and for this he arranged everything 
with his characteristic rapidity of decision. It was settled 
that he should depart immediately, and Mrs. Nelson follow 
under the care of his elder brother Maurice, ten days after 
5 him. But the answer which he received from Government 
quieted his fears. It stated that Captain Nelson was a very 
good officer and need be under no apprehension, for he 
would assuredly be supported. 
Here his disquietude upon this subject seems to have 

lo ended. In the winter of 1792, when we were on the eve 
of the revolutionary war, Nelson once more offered his 
services, earnestly requested a ship, and added that if 
their lordships should be pleased to appoint him to a cockle- 
boat he should feel satisfied. He was answered in the 

15 usual official form: "Sir — I have received your letter of 
the 5th inst., expressing your readiness to serve, and have 
read the same to my lords commissionei'S of the Admiralty." 
On the 12th of December he received this dry acknowl- 
edgment. The fresh mortification did not, however, affect 

20 him long, for by the joint interest of the Duke and Lord 
Hood, he was appointed, on the 30th of January following, 
to the Agamemnon^ of sixty-four guns. 



CHAPTER III 

The Agamemnon was ordered to the Mediterranean, 
under Lord Hood. The fleet arrived in those seas at a 
25 time when the south of France would willingly have 
formed itself into a separate republic under the protection 
of England. But good principles had been at that time 
perilously abused by ignorant and profligate men ; and, in 
its fear and hatred of democracy, the English Government 



20 The Duke. Nelson's friend, Prince William, who had been created Duke 
of Clarence. 



THE LIFE OF JSELSON 35 

abhorred whatever was republican. Lord Hood could not 
take advantage of the fair occasion which presented itself, 
and which, if it had been seized with vigor, might have 
ended in dividing France. But he negotiated with the 
people of Toulon to take possession provisionally of their 5 
port and city, which, fatally for themselves, was done. 
Before the British fleet entered, Nelson was sent with 
dispatches to Sir William Hamilton, our envoy at the 
court of Naples. 

Having accomplished this mission. Nelson received 10 
orders to join Commodore Linzee at Tunis, where he had 
been sent to expostulate with the Dey upon the impolicy of 
his supporting the revolutionary Government of France. 
Nelson represented to him the atrocity of that Government. 
Such arguments were of little avail in Barbary ; and when 15 
the Dey was told that the French had put their sovereign 
to death, he dryly replied that "Nothing could be more 
heinous; and yet, if historians told the truth, the English 
had once done the same." This answer had doubtless been 
suggested by the French about him. They had completely 20 
gained the ascendancy, and all negotiations on our part 
proved fruitless. Shortly afterward Nelson w^as detached 
with a small squadron, to co-operate with General Paoli 
and the anti-Gallican party in Corsica. 

Paoli had opened a correspondence with Lord Hood, 25 
promising, if the English would make an attack upon St. 
Fiorenzo from the sea, he would, at the same time, attack 
it by land. This promise he was unable to perform, and 
Commodore Linzee, who, in reliance upon it, was sent 
upon this service, was repulsed with some loss. Lord 30 



ss General Paoli (1726-1807). A Corsican patriot leader, who, desiring the 
independence of his conutry, made a long struggle against the tyranny of 
France. At length he was obliged to flee to England, where he died, much 
respected, at the advanced age of eighty-one years. There are many allusions 
to him in Boswell's "Johnson." Boswell was an enthusiastic admirer of Paoli, 
and wrote his biogiaphv . 



36 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Hood, who had now been compelled to evacuate Toulon, 
suspected Paoli of intentionally deceiving him. This was 
an injurious suspicion. Shortly afterward he dispatched 
Lieutenant-colonel (afterward Sir John) Moore and Major 
5 Koeliler to confer with him upon a plan of operations. 
While this negotiation was going on, Nelson cruised off the 
island with a small squadron to prevent the enemy from 
throwing in supplies. Close to St. Fiorenzo the French 
had a storehouse of flour near their only mill. He watched 

lo an opportunity and landed 120 men, who threw the flour 
into the sea, burned the mill, and re-embarked before 1000 
men who were sent against him could occasion him the loss 
of a single man. While he exerted himself thus, keeping 
out all supplies, intercepting dispatches, attacking their 

15 outposts and forts, and cutting out vessels from the bay, — 
a species of warfare which depresses the spirit of an enemy 
more than it injures them, because of the sense of individ- 
ual superiority which it indicates in the assailants, — troops 
were landed, and St. Fiorenzo was besieged. The French, 

20 finding themselves unable to maintain their post, sunk one 
of tlieir frigates, burned another, and retreated to Bastia. 
Lord Hood submitted to General Dundas, \vho commanded 
the land forces, a plan for the reduction of this place. The 
general declined co-operating, thinking the attempt im- 

25 practicable, without a reinforcement of 2000 men, which 
he expected from Gibraltar. Upon this Lord Hood deter- 
mined to reduce it with the naval force under his com- 
mand; and leaving part of his fleet off Toulon, he came 
with the rest to Bastia. 

30 Lord Hood could only obtain a few artillerymen ; and 
ordering on board that part of the troops w^lio, having been 

4 Lieutenant-colonel Moore (1761-1809). This was the Sir John Moore 
of Charles Wolfe's familiar poem, " Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note," 
etc. He was killed at the battle of Corunna in 1809. 

IS Cutting out vessels. Attacking the enemy's ships in small boats, cutting 
the cables, and carrying them out of the harbor under the liostile batteries. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 37 

embarked as marines, were borne on the ships' books as 
part of their respective complements, he began the siege 
with 1183 soldiers, artillerymen, and marines, and 250 
sailors. "We are but few," said Nelson, "but of the right 
sort ; our general at St. Fiorenzo not giving us one of the 5 
five regiments he has there lying idle." 

These men were landed on the 4th of April under Lieu- 
tenant-colonel Vilettes and Nelson, who had now acquired 
from the army the title of brigadier. 

The event of this siege justified the confidence of the lo 
sailors; but they themselves excused the opinion of the 
generals, when they saw what they had done. " I am all 
astonishment," said Nelson, "when I reflect upon what 
we have achieved; 1000 regulars, 1500 national guards, 
and a large party of Corsican troojDS, 4000 in all, laying 15 
down their arms to 1200 soldiers, marines, and seamen ! " 

The Agamemnon was now dispatched to co-operate at 
the siege of Calvi with General Sir Charles Stuart. Nelson 
had less responsibility here than at Bastia; and was acting 
with a man after his own heart, who was never sparing of 20 
himself, and slept every night in the advanced battery. 
But the service was not less hard than that of the former 
siege. " We will fag ourselves to death," said he to Lord 
Hood, "before any blame shall lie at our doors. I trust 
it will not be forgotten that twenty-five pieces of heavy 25 
ordnance have been dragged to the different batteries, 
mounted, and all but three fought by seamen, except one 
artilleryman to point the guns." The climate proved 
more destructive than the service; for this was during the 
period of the " lion sun," as they there call our season of 30 
the "dog days." Of two thousand men above half were 
sick, and the rest like so many phantoms. Nelson 

9 Brigadier. Brigadier-general, or commander of a brigade in the army, is 
a rank equivalent to commodore in the navy. 

'■* Regulars. Soldiers belonging to the regular army. National guards were 
militia organized for defense in times of great national danger. 



38 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

described himself as the reed among the oaks, bowing 
before the storm when they were laid low by it. " All 
the prevailing disorders have attacked me," said he, "but 
I have not strength enough for them to fasten on." The 
5 loss from the enemy was not great; but Nelson received 
a serious injury. A shot struck the ground near him, and 
drove the sand and small gravel into one of his ej^es. He 
spoke of it slightly at the time. Writing the same day to 
Lord Hood, he only said that he got a little hurt that 

10 morning, not much ; and the next day, he said, he should 

be able to attend his duty in the evening. In fact, he 

suffered it to confine him only one day; but the sight was 

lost. 

After the fall of Calvi his services were, by a strange 

15 omission, altogether overlooked; and his name was not 
even mentioned in the list of wounded. 

He was now sent with dispatches to Mr. Drake, at 
Genoa, and had his first interview with the Doge. The 
French had, at this time, taken possession of Vado Bay, 

20 in the Genoese territory ; and Nelson foresaw that if their 
thoughts were bent on the invasion of Italy, they would 
accomplish it the ensuing spring. "The allied powers," 
he said, "were jealous of each other; and none but 
England was hearty in the cause." His wish was for 

25 peace, on fair terms, because England, he thought, was 
draining herself to maintain allies who would not fight 
for themselves. Lord Hood had now returned to England, 
and the command devolved on Admiral Hotham. The 
French, who had not yet been taught to feel their own 

30 inferiority upon the seas, braved us, in contempt, upon 



i'^ Mr. Drake. The English minister at Genoa. 

18 Doge. The chief magistrate of the repnblics of Genoa and Venice. 

30 Inferiority. Sonthey never attempts to conceal his mean opinion and 
hatred of tho French. It must be remembered that this biography was 
originally written during the lifetime of Knpolcon. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 39 

tliat element. They had a superior fleet in the Mediter- 
ranean, and they sent it out with express orders to seek 
the English and engage them. Accordingly, the Toulon 
fleet, consisting of seventeen ships of the line and five 
smaller vessels, put to sea. Admiral Hotliam received 5 
this information at Leghorn, and sailed immediately in 
search of them. He had with him fourteen sail of the line 
and one Neapolitan seventy-four; but his ships were only 
half manned, containing but 7650 men, whereas the enemy 
had 16,900, He soon came in sight of them. A general lo 
action was expected, and Nelson, as was his custom on 
such occasions, wrote a hasty letter to his wife, as that 
which might possibly contain his last farewell. "The 
lives of all," said he, " are in the hands of Him who knows 
best whether to preserve mine or not: my character and 15 
good name are in my own keeping," 

But however confident the French Government might 
be of their naval superiority, the officers had no such feel- 
ing; and after maneuvering for a day in sight of the 
English fleet they suffered themselves to be chased. 20 
One of their ships, the (7a Ira, of 84 guns, carried away 
her main and foretop masts. The Inconstant frigate 
fired at the disabled ship, but received so many shot that 
she was obliged to leave her. Soon afterward a French 
frigate took the (7a Ira in tow ; and the Sans Culottes, 120, 25 
and the Jean Barras, 74, kept about gun-shot distance on 
her weather bow. The Agamemnon stood toward her, 

8 Seventy-four. A vessel carrying seventy-four guns, 
2J Ca Ira. The refrain of a famous French revohitionary song begins with 
these words, 
21 Carried away, i. e., broke, 

25 Sans Culottes, French, without breeches. A name given to the ex- 
treme Revohitionists in derision, and adopted by them as an honorable title. 

26 Jean Barras. So called from the well-known Revolutionist of that 
name. 

2v Weather bow. That side of the bow toward the wind. 



40 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

liaving- no ship of the line to support her within several 
miles. As she drew near the CJa Ira fired her stern guns 
so truly that not a shot missed some part of the ship, and, 
latterly, the masts were struck by every shot. It had been 
5 Nelson's intention not to fire before he touched her stern ; 
but seeing- how impossible it was he should be supported, and 
liow certainly*the Agamemnon must be severely cut up if 
her masts were disabled, he altered his plan according to the 
occasion. As soon, therefore, as he was within a hundred 

lo yards of her stern, he ordered the helm to be put a-star- 
board and the driver and after-sails to be brailed up and 
shivered; and, as the ship fell off, gave the enemy her 
whole broadside. They instantly braced up the after- 
yards, put the helm a-port, and stood after her again. 

15 This maneuver he practiced for two hours and a quarter, 
never allowing the (7a Ira to get a single gun from either 
side to bear on him; and when the French fired their after- 
guns now it was no longer with coolness and precision, for 
every shot went far ahead. By this time her sails were 



1" Put a-starboard. To put the helm or tiller a-starboard (to the right) 
turns the ship to port Cto the left). 

1' Driver and after-sails. The driver, or spanker, is a large fore-and-aft 
sail, stretching from the mizzen-mast to the stern. Brailing it up, or half- 
furling it, would remove the pressure of the wind from it. Shivering the 
after-sails means turning their edges to the wind, so that they shake and give 
no resistance to it. Brailing up the driver and shivering the after-sails, by 
removing all pressure of the wind from the after-sails, would cause the ship 
to obey her helm, and fall off more quickly ; that is, turn her head from the 
wind. 

13 Broadside. A discharge of all the guns on one side of the ship at one 
time. 

13 Braced up the after-yards. Brought the after-sails into position, so 
that they would catch the wind again, and assist the helm in turning* tbe ship 
to the rigiit, and on her course once more. 

15 This maneuver. Nelson's design was to take advantage of the Aga- 
memno>i\<i power to sail faster than the towed ^u Ira, by discharging whole 
broadsides at once, to which the French ship could only reply with her stern 
guns. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 41 

hanging- in tatters, her mizzen topmast, mizzen topsail, and 
crossjack yards shot away. But the frigate which had her 
in tow hove in stays, and got her round. Both these 
French ships now brought their guns to bear and opened 
their fire. The Agamemnon passed them within half- 5 
pistol shot; almost every shot passed over her, for the 
French had elevated their guns for the rigging and for 
distant firing, and did not think of altering the elevation. 
As soon as the Agamemnon's after-guns ceased to bear 
she hove in stays, keeping a constant fire as she came lo 
round, and being worked, said Nelson, with as much 
exactness as if she had been turning into Spithead. On 
getting around he saw that the Saiis Culottes, which had 
wore, with many of the enemy's ships, was under his lee 
bow and standing to leeward. The admiral, at the same 15 
time, made the signal for the van ships to join him. Upon 
this Nelson bore away and prepared to set all sail ; and the 
enemy, having saved their ship, hauled close to the wind, 
and opened upon him a distant and ineffectual fire. Only 
seven of the Agamemnon's men were hurt— a thing which 20 

2 Crossjack yards. The crossjack yard is the lowest yard on the mizzen- 
mast, the mast nearest the stern of the ship. 

3 Hove in stays. Turned around on a new tack. A ship sailing in the 
direction from wiiich the wind is blowing is obliged to tack, or zigzag across 
her course, so as to catch the wind slantingly, now on one side of her sails, 
now on the other. 

12 Spithead. A roadstead in the south of England, between Portsea Island 
and the Isle of Wight. 

!■» Wore. Imp. of wear, to cause a vessel to turn so that the wind fills her 
sails from the other side. This is done by putting the helm vx> instead of 
dotvn as in tacking, so that the vessel's bow is turned away from, and her 
stern is presented to, the wind, and as she turns still farther, her sails fill on 
the other side. 

14 Lee bow. The side of the bow away from the wind. 

!■'' Bore away. Turned the bow of his ship more away from the direction 
in which the wind was blowing. 

18 Hauled close to the wind. Brought their vessels around so as to sail, 
as nearly as possible, in the direction from which the wind was blowing. 



42 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Nelson himself remarked as wonderful; her sails and rig- 
ging- were very much cut, and she had many shots in her 
hull and some between wind and water. The (7a Ira lost 
110 men that day, and was so cut up that she could not 
5 get a topmast aloft during the night. 

At daylight on the following morning the English 
ships were taken aback with a fine breeze at N. W., 
while the enemy's fleet kept the southerly wind. The 
body of their fleet Avas about five miles distant; the (7a Ira 

loand the Censeur, seventy-four, which had her in tow, 
about three and a half. All sail was made to cut these 
ships off; and, as the French attempted to save them, 
a partial action was brought on. The Agamemnon was 
engaged with her yesterday's antagonist; but she had to 

15 fight on both sides the ship at the same time. The (7a Ira 
and the Censeur fought most gallantly: the first lost 
nearly 300 men, in addition to her former loss; the last 
350. Both at last struck ; and Lieutenant Andrews, of the 
Agamemnon, hoisted English colors on board them both. 

20 The rest of the enemy's ships behaved very ill. As soon 
as these vessels had struck Nelson went to Admiral 
Hotham and proposed that the two prizes should be left 
with the Illustrious and Couragenx, which had been 
crippled in the action, and with four frigates, and that 

25 the rest of the fleet should pursue the enemy and follow 
up the advantage to the utmost. But his reply was: "We 
must be contented; we have done very well." "Now," 

3 Between wind and water. Near the ship's water-line, which is some- 
times in, and sometimes ont of the water. A shot here is especially dangerous, 
owing to the difficulty of repairs. 

' Taken aback. A ship is taken aback when the wind suddenly changes, 
so as to blow against the front of her sails. The change of wind here men- 
tioned gave the English the advantage, so that they could bear down directly 
on the French ships. 

18 struck. Lowered their colors in token of surrender. 

23 Courageux. Many ships in the English navy, which had been captured 
from the French, retained their original names. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 43 

said Nelson, "had we taken ten sail and allowed the 
eleventh to escape, Avhen it had been possible to have got 
at her, I could never have called it well done. Goodall 
backed me. I got him to write to the admiral; but it 
would not do. We should have had such a day as, 1 5 
believe, the annals of England never produced." In this 
letter the character of Nelson fully manifests itself. "I 
wish," said he, " to be an admiral and in the command of 
the English fleet. I should very soon either do much or 
be ruined. My disposition cannot bear tame and slow lo 
measures. Sure I am, had I commanded on the 14th, that 
either the whole French fleet would have graced my 
triumph, or I should have been in a confounded scrape." 
What the event would have been he knew from his 
prophetic feelings and his own consciousness of power; 15 
and we also know it now, for Aboukir and Trafalgar have 
told it us. 

About this time Nelson was made colonel of marines— a 
mark of approbation which he had long wished for rather 
than expected. It came in good season, for his spirits 20 
were oppressed by the thought that his services had not 
been acknowledged as they deserved. 

He now entered upon a new line of service. The Aus- 
trian and Sardinian armies, under General de Vins, 
required a British squadron to co-operate with them in 25 
driving the French from the Riviera di Genoa; and as 
Nelson had been so much in the habit of soldiering, it was 
immediately fixed that the brigadier should go. He sailed 
from St. Fiorenzo on this destination; but fell in, off Cape 
del Mele, with the enemy's fleet, who immediately gave 30 
his squadron chase. Nelson bent his way back to St. 

18 Colonel of marines. Colonelcies of marines were then conferred npon 
three, and afterward upon four, old post-captains ; and were, In fact, honor- 
able sinecures, which they relinquished on obtaining their flags ; i. e., on 
becoming admirals.— N^elson's Dispatches. 

26 Riviera di Genoa. The Italian coast near Genoa, 



44 TEE LIFE OF NELSON 

Fiorenzo, where the fleet, which was in the midst of 
watering and refitting, had, for seven hours, the mortifica- 
tion of seeing him almost in possession of the enemy, 
before the wind would allow them to put out to his assist- 
5 ance. The French, however, at evening, went off, not 
choosing to approach nearer the shore. 

Nelson now proceeded to his station with eight sail of 
frigates under his command. Arriving at Genoa, he had 
a conference with Mr. Drake, the British envoy to that 

10 state ; the result of which was that the object of the Brit- 
ish must be to put an entire stop to all trade between Genoa, 
France, and the places occupied by the French troops; for, 
unless this trade were stopped, it would be scarcely pos- 
sible for the allied armies to hold their situation, and im- 

15 possible for them to make any progress in driving the 
enemy out of the Riviera di Genoa. Mr. Drake was of 
opinion that even Nice might fall for want of supplies, if 
the trade with Genoa were cut off. This sort of blockade 
Nelson could not carry on without great risk to himself. 

20 A captain in the navy, as he represented to the envoy, is 
liable to prosecution for detention and damages. 

When Nelson first saw General de Vins, he thought him 
an able man, who was willing to act with vigor. But the 
English commodore soon began to suspect that the Austrian 

25 general was little disposed to any active operations. Nelson 
was at this time, according to his own expression, placed 
in a cleft stick. Mr. Drake, the Austrian minister, and the 
Austrian general, all joined in requiring him not to leave 
Genoa. On the other hand, he knew that if he were not 

30 at Pietra, the enemy's gunboats would harass the left flank 
of the Austrians, who, if they were defeated, as was to be 
expected, from the spirit of all their operations, would very 



18 Genoa. Genoa was neutral, but had been supplying provisions to the 
French. Nelson's object was to stop this. 
27 In a cleft stick. In a dilemma. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 45 

probably lay their defeat to the want of assistance from the 
Agamemnon. Tlie attack was made, as he foresaw ; and the 
gunboats brought their fire to bear upon the Austrians. It 
so happened, however, that the left flank, which was exposed 
to them, was the only part of the army that behaved well; 5 
this division stood its ground till the center and the right 
wing fled, and then retreated in a soldier-like manner. 
General de Vins gave up the command in the middle of 
the battle, pleading ill health. " From that moment," says 
Nelson, "not a soldier stayed at his post. Many thousands 10 
ran away who had never seen the enemy; some of them 
thirty miles from the advanced posts. Had I not — though, 
I own, against my inclination — been kept at Genoa, from 
eight to ten tliousand men would have been taken prison- 
ers, and, among the number, General de Vins himself: 15 
but, by this means, the pass of the Bocchetta was kept open. 
The purser of the ship, who was at Vado, ran with the 
Austrians eighteen miles without stopping ; the men with- 
out arms, officers without soldiers, women without assist- 
ance. The oldest officer, say they, never heard of so 20 
complete a defeat, and certainly without any reason. 
Thus has ended my campaign. We have established 
the French republic; which, but for us, I verily believe, 
would never have been settled by such a volatile, change- 
able people." 25 

The defeat of General de Vins gave the enemy possession 
of the Genoese coast from Savona to Voltri ; and it deprived 
the Austrians of their direct communication with the Eng- 
lish fleet. The Agamemnon^ therefore, could no longer be 
useful on this station, and Nelson sailed for Leghorn to 30 
refit. When the ship went into dock, there was not a 
mast, yard, sail, or any part of the rigging, but what 
stood in need of repair, having been cut to pieces with 



i« The pass of the Bocchetta. A pass through the Apennines, fifteen miles 
north of Genoa. 



46 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

shot. The liull was so damaged that it had for some 
time been secured by cables, which were served or 
thrapped round it. 



CHAPTER IV 

Sir John Jervis had now arrived to take the command of 
5 the Mediterranean fleet. The Agamemnon having, as her 
captain said, been made as fit for sea as a rotten ship could 
be, Nelson sailed from Leghorn, and joined the admiral in 
Fiorenzo Bay. Sir John Jervis offered him the St. George, 
ninety, or the Zealous, seventy-four, and asked if he should 

lo have any objection to serve under him with his flag. He 
replied that if the Agamemnon were ordered home, and 
his flag were not arrived, he should, on many accounts, 
wish to return to England: still, if the war continued, he 
should be very proud of hoisting his flag under Sir John's 

15 command. " We cannot spare you," said Sir John, "either 
as captain or admiral." Accordingly, he resumed his sta- 
tion in the Gulf of Genoa. 

General Beaulieu, who had now superseded De Vins in 
the command of the allied Austrian and Sardinian army, 

20 ordered an attack to be made upon the post of Vol tri; it 
was made twelve hours before the time which lie had fixed, 
and before he arrived to direct it. This drew on the defeat 
of the Austrians. Bonaparte, with a celerity which had 
never before been witnessed in modern war, pursued his 

25 advantages ; and, in tlie course of a fortnight, dictated to 
the court of Turin terms of peace, or rather of submission, 

3 Thrapped. Thoui^h Sonthey confessed that he " walked among sea-terms 
as carefully as a cat does among crockery," he could not avoid some errors, as 
here,— thrapped should be /ra;)/)e(^,— meaning to secure a damaged hull by 
binding ropes tightly about it. 

12 His flag were not arrived. If he had not been promoted to the rank 
of admiral. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 47 

by which all the strongest places of Piedmont were put into 
his hands. 

On one occasion, and only on one, Nelson was able to 
impede the progress of this new conqueror. Six vessels, 
laden with cannon and ordnance stores for the siege of Man- 5 
tua, sailed from Toulon for St. Pier d' Arena. Assisted by 
Captain Cockburn, in the Meleager, he drove them under a 
battery, pursued them, silenced the batteries, and captured 
the whole. Bonaparte perceived that the conquest of all 
Italy was within his reach : treaties, and the rights of neu- lo 
tral or friendly powers, were as little regarded by him as 
by the Government for which he acted. In open contempt 
of both he entered Tuscany, and took possesion of Leghorn. 
In consequence of this movement, Nelson blockaded that 
port, and landed a British force in the Isle of Elba, to 15 
secure Porto Ferrajo. Soon afterward he took the island 
of Capraja, which had formerly belonged to Corsica, being 
less than forty miles distant from it: a distance, however, 
short as it was, which enabled the Genoese to retain it, 
after their infamous sale of Corsica to France. Genoa had 20 
now taken part with France : its Government had long cov- 
ertly assisted the French, and now willingly yielded to the 
first compulsory menace which required them to exclude 
the English from their ports. Capraja was seized, in con- 
sequence; but this act of vigor was not followed up as it 25 
ought to have been. England at that time depended too 
much upon the feeble governments of the Continent, and 
too little upon itself. It was determined by the British 
cabinet to evacuate Corsica, as soon as Spain should form 
an offensive alliance with France. 30 

The Viceroy, Sir Gilbert Elliot, deeply felt the impolicy 
and ignominy of this evacuation. The fleet was also 
ordered to leave the Mediterranean. This resolution was so 
contrary to the last instructions which had been received, 
that Nelson exclaimed, " Do his Majesty's ministers know 35 
their own minds ? They at home," said he, " do not know 



48 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

what this fleet is capable of performing— anything and 
everything. Much as I shall rejoice to see England, I 
lament our present orders iu sackcloth and ashes, so dis- 
honorable to tlie dignity of England, whose fleets are equal 
5 to meet the world in arms ; and of all of the fleets I ever 
saw, I never beheld one, in point of officers and men, equal 
to Sir John Jervis', who is a commander-in-chief able to 
lead them to glory." Sir Gilbert Elliot believed that the 
great body of Corsicans were perfectly satisfied, as they 

lo had good reason to be, with the British government, sen- 
sible of its advantages, and attached to it. How^ever this 
may have been, when they found that the English intended 
to evacuate the island, they naturally and necessarily sent 
to make their peace with the French. The partisans of 

15 France found none to oppose them. A committee of thirty 
took upon them the government of Bastia, and sequestered 
all the British property ; armed Corsicans mounted guard 
at every place, and a plan was laid for seizing the viceroj^ 
Nelson, who was appointed to superintend the evacuation, 

20 frustrated these projects. At a time when everyone else 
despaired of saving stores, cannon, provisions, or property 
of any kind, and a privateer was moored across the mole- 
head to prevent all boats from passing, he sent word to the 
committee that if the slighest opposition were made to the 

25 embarkment and removal of British property, he would 
batter the town down. The privateer pointed her guns at 
the officer who carried this message, and muskets were 
leveled against his boats from the mole-head. Upon this, 
Captain Sutton, of the Egmont, pulling out his watch, 

30 gave them a quarter of an hour to deliberate upon their 
answer. In five minutes after the expiration of that time, 
the ships, he said, would open their fire. Upon this the 



3 In sackcloth and ashes. A Scriptural plirase. The Jews used to 
express their grief by clothing themselves in sackcloth, and throwing ashes 
on their heads. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 49 

very sentinels scampered off, and every vessel came out of 
the mole. A ship-owner complained to the commodore 
that the municipality refused to let him take his goods out 
of the custom house. Nelson directed him to say that, un- 
less they were instantly delivered, he would open his fire. 5 
The committee turned pale; and, without answering a 
word, gave him the keys. Their last attempt was to levy 
a duty upon the things that were re-embarked. He sent 
tliem word that he would pay them a disagreeable visit if 
there were any more complaints. This was on the 14th of lo 
October: during the five following days the work of em- 
barkation was carried on, the private property was saved, 
and public stores to the amount of two hundred thousand 
pounds. The French, favored by the Spanish fleet, which 
was at that time within twelve leagues of Bastia, pushed 15 
over troops from Leghorn, who landed near Cape Corse 
on the 18th, and on the 20th, at one in the morning, en- 
tered the citadel, an hour only after the British had spiked 
the guns, and evacuated it. Nelson embarked at daybreak, 
being the last person who left the shore ; having thus, as 20 
he said, seen the first and the last of Corsica. 

Having thus ably effected this humiliating service, Nel- 
son was ordered to hoist his broad pendant on board the 
Minerve frigate. Captain George Cockburn, and, with the 
Blanche under his command, proceed to Porto Ferrajo, 25 
and superintend the evacuation of that place also. On his 
way he fell in with two Spanish frigates, the Sdbina and 
the Ceres. The Minerve engaged the former, which was 
commanded by Don Jacobo Stuart, a descendant of the 
Duke of Berwick. After an action of three hours, during 30 

18 Spiked the guns. A cannon is rendered useless by driving a spike into 
the touchhole. 

23 Broad pendant. A swallow-tailed flag, denoting the presence of a com- 
modore or senior captain of a sqnadron. 

3« Duke of Berwick (1670-1734). A son of James II., marshal of France, 
and a famous general. 



50 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

which the Spaniards lost 164 men, the Sabina struck. 
The Spanish captain, who was the only surviving offi- 
cer, had hardly been conveyed on board the Minerve, 
when another enemy's frigate came up, compelled her 
5 to cast otf the prize, and brought her a second time to 
action. After half an hour's trial of strength, this new 
antagonist wore and hauled oflP; but a Spanish squadron of 
two ships of the line and two frigates came in sight. The 
Blanche, from which the Ceres had got off, was far to 

ID windward, and the Minerve escaped only by the anxiety 
of the enemy to recover their own ship. As soon as Nel- 
son reached Porto Ferrajo, he sent his prisoner in a flag of 
truce to Carthagena, having returned him his sword ; this 
he did in honor to the gallantry which Don Jacobo had 

15 displayed, and not without some feeling of respect for his 
ancestry. "I felt it," said he, "consonant to the dignity 
of my country, and I always act as I feel right, without 
regard to custom. He was reputed the best officer in Spain, 
and his men were worthy of such a commander." By the 

20 same flag of truce he sent back all the Spanish prisoners at 
Porto Ferrajo, in exchange for whom he received his ow^n 
men who had been taken in the prize. 

Nelson's mind had long been irritated and depressed by 
the fear that a general action would take place before he 

25 could join the fleet. At length he sailed from Porto Ferrajo 
with a convoy for Gibraltar, and having reached that 
place, proceeded to the westward in search of the admiral. 
Off the mouth of the Straits he fell in with the Spanish 
fleet; and, on the 13th of February, reaching the station ofi" 

30 Cape St. Vincent, communicated this intelligence to Sir 
John Jervis. He was now directed to shift his broad 
pendant on board the Captain^ seventy-four, Captain E. 
W. Miller, and, before sunset, the signal was made to pre- 
pare for action, and to keep, during the night, in close 

13 Flag of truce. Here used for the ship bearing the flag of truce. 



TEE LIFE OF NELSON 51 

order. At daybreak the enemy were in sight. Their 
admiral, John Joseph de Cordova, had learned from an 
American on the 5th that the English had only nine ships, 
which indeed was the case when his informer had seen 
them ; for a reinforcement of five ships from England, 5 
under Admiral Parker, had not then joined, and the Cul- 
loden had parted company. Upon this information, the 
Spanish commander, instead of going into Cadiz, as was 
his intention when he sailed from Carthagena, determined 
to seek an enemy so inferior in force ; and relying, with 10 
fatal confidence, upon the American account, he suffered 
his ships to remain too far dispersed, and in some disorder. 
Before the enemy could form a regular order of battle, 
Sir John Jervis, by carrying a press of sail, came up with 
them, passed through their fleet, then tacked, and thus cut 15 
off nine of their ships from the main body. These ships 
attempted to form on the larboard tack, either with a 
design of passing through the British line, or to leeward of 
it, and thus rejoining their friends. Only one of them suc- 
ceeded in this attempt, and that only because she was so 20 
covered with smoke that her intention was not discovered 
till she had reached the rear; the others were so warmly 
received that they put about, took to flight, and did 
not appear again in the action till its close. The admiral 
was now able to direct his attention to the enemy's main 25 
body, which was still superior in number to his whole 
fleet, and more so in weight of metal. He made signal to 
tack in succession. Nelson, whose station was in the rear 
of the British line, perceived that the Spaniards were bear- 
ing up before the wind, with an intention of forming their 30 
line, going large, and joining their separated ships, or else 
of getting off without an engagement. To prevent either 



IT On the larboard tack. Sailing with the wind on the left side. 
27 "Weight of metal. Aggregate weight of their cannon. 
81 Going large. Sailing more or less before the wind. 



52 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

of these schemes, he disobeyed the signal without a 
moment's hesitation, and ordered his ship to be wore. 
This at once brought him into action witli the Santissima 
Trinidad, 136; the San Josef, 112; the Salvador del 
5 Mundo, 112 ; the San Nicolas, 80 ; the San Isidro, 
74 ; another 74, and another first-rate. Trowbridge, 
in the CiUloden, immediately joined, and most nobly 
supported him ; and for nearly an hour did the CiU- 
loden and CajJtain maintain what Nelson called "this 

lo apparently, but not really, unequal contest" — such was the 
advantage of skill and discipline, and the confidence which 
brave men derive from them. The Blenheim, then passing 
between them and the enemy, gave them a respite, and 
poured in her fire upon the Spaniards. The Salvador del 

15 Mundo and San Isidro dropped astern, and were fired into, 
in a masterly style, by the Excellent, Captain Collingwood. 
The San Isidro struck, and Nelson thought that the Salva- 
dor struck also. " But Collingwood," says he, "disdain- 
ing the parade of taking possession of beaten enemies, most 

20 gallantly pushed up, with every sail set, to save his old 
friend and messmate, who was, to appearance, in a critical 
situation;" for the Captain was at this time actually 
fired upon by three first-rates, by the San Nicolas, and 
by a seventy-four, within about pistol-shot of that vessel. 

25 The Blenheim was ahead, the Culloden crippled and astern. 
Collingwood ranged up, and, hauling up his mainsail just 
astern, passed within ten feet of the San Nicolas, giving 
her a most tremendous fire, then passed on for the San- 
tissima Trinidad. The San Nicolas luffing up, the San 

2,0 Josef fell on board her, and Nelson resumed his station 
abreast of them, and close alongside. The Captain was 



23 First-rates. Ships of one hundred guns or more. 

29 Luffing up. Turning her bow toward the wind. 

30 Fell on board her. Collided with her, so that the broadsides of the two 
ships touched. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 53 

now incapable of further service, either in the line or in 
chase; she had lost her fore-topmast, not a sail, shroud, or 
rope was left, and her wheel was shot away. Nelson, 
therefore, directed Captain Miller to put the helm a-star- 
board, and, calling for the boarders, ordered them to 5 

board. 

Captain Berry, who had lately been Nelson s first lieu- 
tenant, was the first man who leaped into the enemy's 
mizzen chains. Miller, when in the very act of going, was 
ordered by Nelson to remain. Berry was supported from lo 
the spritsail yard, which locked in the San Nicolas' mam 
rigging. A soldier of the Sixty-ninth broke the upper 
quarter-gallery window, and jumped in, followed by the 
commodore himself, and by others as fast as possible. 
The cabin doors were fastened, and the Spanish officers 15 
fired their pistols at them through the window; the doors 
were soon forced, and the Spanish brigadier fell while 
retreating to the quarter-deck. Nelson pushed on, and 
found Berry in possession of the poop, and the Spanish 
ensign hauling down. He passed on to the forecastle, 20 
where he met two or three Spanish officers, and received 
their swords. The English were now in full possession of 
every part of the ship, and a fire of pistols and musketry 
opened upon them from the admiral's stern gallery of the 
San Josef. Nelson having placed sentinels at the different 25 
ladders, and ordered Captain Miller to send more men into 
the prize, gave orders for boarding that ship from the San 



9 Mizzen chains. A narrow heavy platform projecting from the ship's 
side just aft of the mizzen-mast. 

11 Spritsail yard. The yard of a square sail on the bowsprit. 

12 A soldier of the Sixty-ninth. Of the Sixty-ninth Regiment. 

13 Quarter-gallery. A sort of gallery in the stern of the ship. 

27 San Nicolas. " There is a saying in the fleet too flattering for me to 
omit telling, viz.: 'Nelson's Patent Bridge for boarding First-Rates '; allud- 
ing to my passing over an enemy's eighty-gun 8hip."-iVo/e to Nelsons 
autograph account of the battle. 



54 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Nicolas. It was done in an instant, he himself leading" 
the way, and exclaiming: "Westminster Abbey, or vic- 
tory ! " Berry assisted him into the main chains, and at 
that moment a Spanish officer looked over the quarter- 
5 deck rail, and said they surrendered. It was not long 
before he was on the quarter-deck, where the Spanish cap- 
tain presented to him his sword, and told him the admiral 
was below, dying of his wounds. There, on the quarter- 
deck of an enemy's first-rate, he received the swords of the 

lo officers, giving them, as they were delivered, one by one, 
to William Fearney, one of his old " Agamemnons," who, 
with the utmost coolness, put them under his arm. One 
of his sailors came up, and, with an Englishman's feeling, 
took him by the hand, saying he might not soon have 

15 such another place to do it in, and he was heartily glad to 
see him there. Twenty-four of the Captain's men were 
killed, and fifty-six wounded; a fourth part of the loss sus- 
tained by the whole squadron falling upon this ship. 
Nelson received only a few bruises. 

20 The Spaniards had still eighteen or nineteen ships, which 
had suffered little or no injury : that part of the fleet which 
had been separated from the main body in the morning 
was now coming up, and Sir John Jervis made signal to 
bring-to. His ships could not have formed without aban- 

25 doning those which they had captured, and running to lee- 
ward: the Captain was lying a perfect wreck on board her 
two prizes; and many of the other vessels were so shattered 
in their masts and rigging as to be wholly unmanageable. 
The Spanish admiral, meantime, according to his official 

30 account, being altogether undecided in his own opinion 



2 " Westminster Abbey, or victory." There is much doubt a8 to Nelson's 
having actually made this exclamation. Westminster Abbey is the burial 
place of England's great heroes. 

11 Agamemnons. The crew of the old ship, the Agamemnori. 

24 Bring-to. To check the ships, so that they could keep together. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 55 

respecting the state of the fleet, inquired of his captains 
whether it was proper to renew the action : nine of them 
answered explicitly that it was not; others replied that it 
was expedient to delay the business. 

As soon as the action was discontinued, Nelson went on 5 
board the admiral's ship. Sir John Jervis received him on 
the quarter-deck, took him in his arms, and said he could 
not sufficiently thank him. For this victory the com- 
mander-in-chief was rewarded with the title of Earl St. 
Vincent. Nelson, who, before the action was known in lo 
England, had been advanced to the rank of rear-admiral, 
had the Order of the Bath given him. The sword of the 
Spanish rear-admiral, which Sir John Jervis insisted upon 
his keeping, he presented to the mayor and corporation 
of Norwich. The freedom of that city was voted him on 15 
this occasion. But of all the numerous congratulations 
which he received, none could have affected him with 
deeper delight than that which came from his venerable 
father. " I thank my God," said this excellent man, ' ' with 
all the power of a grateful soul, for the mercies he has 20 
most graciously bestowed on me in preserving you. Not 
only my few acquaintance here, but the people in general, 
met me at every corner with such handsome words that I 
was obliged to retire from the public eye. The height of 
glory to which your professional judgment, united with a 25 
proper degree of bravery, guarded by Providence, has 

n Rear-admiral. There are three grades of admirals in the English navy, 
viz.: admirals without qualifications, the highest grade, who bear their flag on 
the main-mast ; vice-admirals, bearing their flag on the foremast, and rear- 
admirals, whose flag is carried at the mizzen-mast. 

12 Order of the Bath . He was made a knight of the Order of the Bath. He 
is henceforth spoken of as Sir Horatio Nelson. The Order of the Bath is so 
called from the fact that when the order was first founded new knights bathed 
ceremoniously, in token of purity. At the coronation of Charles II., in 1661, 
the last knights were installed with this ancient ceremony. 

15 The freedom of that city. He was made a freeman of the city. In old 
days this conferred numerous privileges, but to-day it is merely an honor. 



56 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

raised you, few soijs, my clear child, attain to, and fewer 
fathers liv^e to see. Tears of joy have involuntarily 
trickled down my furrowed cheeks. Who could stand the 
force of such general congratulations? The name and 
5 services of Nelson have sounded throughout this city of 
Bath — from the common ballad-singer to the public 
theater.'' The good old man concluded by telling him 
that the field of glory, in wliich he had so long been con- 
spicuous, was still open, and by giving him his blessing. 

10 Sir Horatio, who had now hoisted his flag as rear-admiral 
of the blue, was sent to bring away the troops from Porto 
Ferrajo : having performed this, he shifted his flag to the 
Theseus. While there, he was employed in the command 
of the inner squadron at the blockade of Cadiz. During 

15 this service the most perilous action occurred in which he 
was ever engaged. Making a night attack upon the Span- 
ish gun-boats, his barge was attacked by an armed launch, 
under their commander, Don Miguel Tregoj-en, carrying 
twenty-six men. Nelson had with him only his ten barge- 

20 men. Captain Freemantle, and his coxswain, John Sykes, 
an old and faithful follower, who twice saved the life of his 
admiral by parrying the blows that were aimed at him, 
and, at last, actually interposed his owai head to receive 
the blow of a Spanish saber, which he could not by any 

25 other means avert; — thus dearly was Nelson beloved. 
This was a desperate service — hand to hand with swords : 
and Nelson alwaj^s considered that his personal courage 
was more conspicuous on this occasion than on any other 
during his whole life. Notwithstanding the great dispro- 

30 portion of numbers, eighteen of the enemy were killed, all 
the rest wounded, and their launch taken. 

Ji The blue. The blue squadron. In Nelson's time there were three 
grades of admiral, distinguished by the color of their flags— red, white, and 
blue, respectively. 

1^ Barge. A ten-oared boat used by the commander in going from ship to 
ship, or to the shore. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 57 

Twelve days after this rencontre, Nelson sailed at the head 
of an expedition against Teneriffe. A report had prevailed 
a few months before that the viceroy of Mexico, with the 
treasure ships, had put into that island. This had led Nel- 
son to meditate the plan of an attack upon it, which he 5 
communicated to Earl St. Vincent. 

The plan was that the boats should land in the night 
between the fort on the N. E. side of Santa Cruz bay and 
the town, make themselves masters of that fort, and then 
send a summons to the governor. By midnight the three lo 
frigates, liaving the force on board which was intended for 
this debarkation, approached within three miles of the 
place; but owing to a strong gale of wind in the offing, 
and a strong current against them in-shore, they were not 
able to get within a mile of the landing-place before day- 15 
break; and then they were seen, and their intention dis- 
covered. Trowbridge and Bowen, and Captain Oldfield, of 
the marines, went upon this to consult with the admiral 
what was to be done ; and it was resolved that they should 
attempt to get possession of the heights above the fort. 20 
The frigates accordingly landed their men ; and Nelson 
stood in with the line-of-battle ships, meaning to batter the 
fort, for the purpose of distracting the attention of the gar- 
rison. A calm and contrary current hindered him from 
getting within a league of the shore; and the heights were 25 
by this time so secured and manned with such a force as 
to be judged impracticable. Thus foiled in his plans by 
circumstances of wdnd and tide, he still considered it a 
point of honor that some attempt should be made. This 
was on the 22d of July : he re-embarked his men that 30 
night, got the ships, on the 24th, to anchor about two miles 
north of the town, and made show as if he intended to 
attack the heights. 

At eleven o'clock the boats, containing between 600 and 
700 men, with 180 on board the Fox cutter, and from 70 to 35 
80 in a boat which had been taken the day before, pro- 



58 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ceeded in six divisions toward the town, condncled by all 
the captains of the squadron, except Freeman tie and Bowen, 
who attended with Nelson to regulate and lead the way to 
the attack. They were to land on the mole, and thence 
5 hasten, as fast as possible, into the great square; then 
form, and proceed as should be found expedient. They 
were not discovered till about half-past one o'clock, when, 
being within half gun-shot of the landing-place, Nelson 
directed the boats to cast off from each other, give a huzza, 

lo and push for the shore. But the Spaniards were excellently 
well prepared: the alarm bells answered the huzza, and 
afire of thirty or forty pieces , of cannon, with musketry 
from one end of the town to the other, opened upon tlie 
invaders. Nothing, however, could check the intrepidity 

15 with which they advanced. The night was exceedingly 
dark ; most of the boats missed the mole, and went on shore 
through a raging surf, which stove all to the left of it. 
The admiral, Freemantle, Thompson, Bowen, and four or 
five other boats, found the mole : they stormed it instantly, 

20 and carried it, though it was defended, as they imagined, 

by four or five hundred men. Its guns, which were six- 

and-twenty pounders, were spiked ; but such a heavy fire 

of musketry and grape was kept up from the citadel and 

' the houses at the head of the mole that the assailants 

25 could not advance, and nearly all of them were killed or 
wounded. 

In the act of stepping out of the boat, Nelson received a 
shot through the right elbow, and fell. Nisbet, who was 
close to him, placed him at the bottom of the boat, and 

30 laid his hat over the shattered arm, lest the sight of the 

9 To cast off from each other. The boats had been fastened together, 

1'^ Stove all to the left of it. Broke in all the boats that went ashore to the 

left of it. 
-3 Grape. Grape shot, consisting of a cluster of small cannon balls, so 

arranged as to make a single charge for a cannon. In Nelson's day grape shot 

were inclosed in canvas bags. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 59 

blood, which gushed out in great abundance, should 
increase his faintness. He then examined the wound; and 
taking some silk handkerchiefs from his neck, bound them 
round tight above the lacerated vessels. Had it not been 
for this presence of mind in his son-in-law, Nelson must 5 
have perished. One of his bargemen, by name Lovel, tore 
his shirt into shreds, and made a sling with them for the 
broken limb. Tliey then collected five other seamen, by 
whose assistance they succeeded, at length, in getting the 
boat afloat; for it had grounded with the falling tide. In a lo 
few minutes a general shriek was heard from the crew of 
the Fox, which had received a shot under water, and went 
down. Ninety-seven men were lost in her; eighty-three 
were saved, many by Nelson himself, whose exertions on 
this occasion greatly increased the pain and danger of his 15 
wound. 

The total loss of the English, in killed, wounded, and 
drowned, amounted to 250. Nelson made no mention of 
his own wound in his official dispatches ; but in a private 
letter to Lord St. Vincent — the first which he wrote with 20 
his left hand— he shows himself to have been deeply 
affected by the failure of this enterprise. *' I am become," 
he said, "a burthen to my friends, and useless to my 
country: but by my last letter you will perceive my anxiety 
for the promotion of my stepson, Josiah Nisbet. When 1 25 
leave your command, I become dead to the world : — I go 
hence, and am no more seen." " A left-handed admiral," 
he said in a subsequent letter, "will never again be con- 
sidered as useful ; therefore the sooner I get to a very 
humble cottage the better; and make room for a sounder 30 
man to serve the state." 

His stepson, according to his wish, was immediately 
promoted, and honors enough to heal his wounded spirit 
awaited him in England. Letters were addressed to him 

5 Son-in-law. Nisbet was Nelson's stepson. 



60 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

by the First Lord of the Admiralty, and by his steady 
friend, the Duke of Clarence, to congratulate him on his 
return, covered as he was with glory. He assured the 
duke, in his reply, that not a scrap of that ardor with 

5 which he had hitherto served his king had been shot away. 
The freedom of the cities of Bristol and London were con- 
ferred on him. He was invested with the Order of the 
Bath, and received a pension of one thousand pounds a 
year. 

ID His sufferings from the lost limb were long and painful. 
He had scarcely any intermission of pain, day or night, 
for three months after his return to England. 

About the end of November, after a night of sound sleep, 
he found the arm nearly free from pain. From that time 

15 it began to heal. As soon as he thought his health estab- 
lished, he sent the following form of thanksgiving to the 
minister of St. George's, Hanover Square: "An officer 
desires to return thanks to Almighty God for his perfect 
recovery from a severe wound, and also for the many 

20 mercies bestowed on him." 

Not having been in England till now, since he lost his 
eye, he went to receive a year's pay as smart money, but 
could not obtain payment because he had neglected to 
bring a certificate from a surgeon that the sight was 

25 actually destroyed. A little irritated that this foi'm should 
be insisted upon, — because, though the fact was not appar- 
ent, he thought it was sufficiently notorious, — he procured 
a certificate at the same time for the loss of his arm, saying 
they might just as well doubt one as the other. This put 

30 him in good humor with himself and with the clerk who 
had offended him. On his return to the office the clerk, 
finding it was only the annual pay of captain, observed he 
thought it had been more. "Oh! "replied Nelson, "this 
is only for an eye. In a few days I shall come for an arm; 

22 Smart money. Money given to compensate for wounds. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON ' 61 

and in a little time longer, God knows, most probably for 
a leg." Accordingly he soon afterward went, and with per- 
fect good humor exhibited the certificate of the loss of his 
arm. 



CHAPTER V 

Early in the year 1798, Sir Horatio Nelson hoisted his 5 
flag in the Vanguard, and was ordered to rejoin Earl St. 
Vincent. 

Immediately on his rejoining the fleet he was dispatched 
to the Mediterranean with a small squadron in order to 
ascertain, if possible, the object of the great expedition 10 
which at that time was fitting out, under Bonaparte, at 
Toulon. 

The first news of the enemy's armament was that it had 
surprised Malta. Nelson formed a plan for attacking it 
while at anchor at Gozo; but on the 22d of June intelli- 15 
gence reached him that the French had left that island on 
the 16th, the day after their arrival. It was clear that 
their destination was eastward — he thought for Egypt — 
and for Egypt, therefore, he made all sail. He arrived off 
Alexandria on the 28th, and the enemy was not there, 20 
neither was there any account of them. Nelson then 
shaped his course to the northward for Caramania, and 
steered from thence along the southern side of Can- 
dia, carrying a press of sail both night and day, with a 
contrary wind. But, baffled in his pursuit, he returned 25 
to Sicily. The Neapolitan ministry had determined to 
give his squadron no assistance, being resolved to do 
nothing which could possibly endanger their peace with 
the French Directory. By means, however, of Lady Ham- 
ilton's influence at court, he procured secret orders to the 30 
Sicilian governors, and under those orders obtained every- 

15 Gozo. A small island a few miles northwest of Malta. 



62 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

thing which he wanted at Syracuse — a timely supply, 
without which, he always said, he could not have recom- 
menced his pursuit with any hope of success. 
On the 25th of July he sailed from Syracuse for the 
5 Morea. Anxious beyond measure, and irritated that the 
enemy should so long have eluded him, the tediousness of 
the nights made him impatient, and the oflScer of the 
watch was repeatedly called on to let him know the hour, 
and convince him, who measured time by his own eager- 

10 ness, that it was not yet daybreak. The squadron made 
the gulf of Coron on the 28th. Trowbridge entered the 
port and returned with intelligence that the French had 
been seen about four weeks before steering to the S. E. 
from Candia. Nelson then determined immediately to 

15 return to Alexandria, and the British fleet accordingly, 
with every sail set, stood once more for the coast of Egypt. 
On the 1st of August, about ten in the morning, they came 
in sight of Alexandria; the port had been vacant and soli- 
tary when they saw it last; it was now crowded with ships, 

20 and they perceived with exultation that the tri-color flag 
was flying upon the walls. At four in the afternoon Cap- 
tain Hood, in the Zealous, made the signal for the enemy's 
fleet. For many preceding days Nelson had hardly taken 
either sleep or food. He now ordered his dinner to be 

25 served, while preparations were making for battle, and when 

his officers rose from the table and went to their separate 

stations, he said to them: "Before this time to-morrow I 

shall have gained a peerage or Westminster Abbey. " 

The French, steering direct for Candia, had made an 

30 angular passage for Alexandria ; whereas Nelson, in 
pursuit of them, made straight for that place, and thus 
materially shortened the distance. 



s Morea. The ancient Peloponnesus. 

22 Made the signal. Signaled with flags that the enemy's fleet was in 
sight. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 63 

The French fleet arrived at Alexandria on the 1st of 
July ; and Brueys, not being able to enter the port, which 
time and neglect had ruined, moored his ships in Aboukir 
Bay, choosing the strongest position which he could possi- 
bly take in an open road. The commissary of the fleet said 5 
they were moored in such a manner as to bid defiance to 
a force more than double their own. This presumption 
could not then be thought unreasonable. Admiral Bar- 
rington, when moored in a similar manner off St. Lucia in 
the year 1778, beat off the Comte d'Estaign in three several lo 
attacks, though his force was inferior by almost one-third 
to that which assailed it. Here the advantage of numbers, 
both in ships, guns, and men, was in favor of the French. 
They had thirteen ships of tlie line and four frigates, 
carrying 1196 guns, and 11,230 men. The English had the 15 
same number of ships of the line and one fifty-gun ship, 
carrying 1012 guns and 8068 men. The English ships were 
all seventy-fours ; the French had three eighty-gun ships, 
and one three-decker of 120. 

The moment Nelson perceived the position of the French, 20 
that intuitive genius with which he was endowed displayed 
itself, and it instantly struck him that where there was 
room for an enemy's ship to swing there was room for one 
of ours to anchor. The plan which he intended to pursue, 
therefore, was to keep entirely on the outer side of the 25 
French line and station his ships, as far as he was able, 
one on the outer bow and another on the outer quarter of 
each of the enemy's. Captain Berry, when he compre- 
hended the scope of the design, exclaimed with transport : 
"If we succeed, what will the world say ! " "There is no 30 
e/in the case," replied the admiral. "That we shall suc- 

3 Aboukir Bay. Between Alexandria and the Rosetta branch of the Nile. 

9 St. Lucia. An island in the West Indies. 

15 Men, The French account of the battle, given by Admiral Blanquet, 
states that the French ships had many less seamen than they should have liad 
to handle them properly. It was for this reason that they were anchored. 



64 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



ceed is certain; who may live to tell the story is a very 
different question." 

As the squadron advanced they were assailed by a shower 
of shot and shells from the batteries on the island, and the 
5 enemy opened a steady fire from the starboard side of their 
whole line within half gun-shot distance full into the bows 
of our van ships. It was received in silence ; the men on 
board every ship were employed aloft in furling sails, 
and below in tending the braces and making ready for 

10 anchoring. 

A French brig was instructed to decoy the English, by 
maneuvering so as to tempt them toward a shoal lying off 
the island of Bequieres; but Nelson either knew the danger 
or suspected some deceit, and the lure was unsuccessful. 

15 Captain Foley led the way in the Goliath. He had long 
conceived that if the enemy were moored in line of battle 
in with the land, the best plan of attack would be to lead 
between them and the shore, because the French guns on 
that side were not likely to be manned, nor even ready for 

20 action. Intending, therefore, to fix himself on the inner 
bow of the Guerrier, he kept as near the edge of the bank 
as the depth of water would admit; but his anchor hung, 
and having opened his fire he drifted to the second ship, 
the Conquerant, before it was clear, then anchored by the 

25 side of her, and in ten minutes shot away her mast. 

While the advanced ships doubled the French line, the 
Vanguard was the first that anchored on the outer side of 
the enemy, within half pistol-shot of their third ship, the 
Spartiate. The action began at half-after six ; about seven 

30 night closed, and there was no other light than that from 
the fire of the contending fleets. 

The two first ships of the French line had been dismasted 
within a quarter of an hour after the commencement of 
the action; and the others had in that time suffered so 

35 severely that victory was already certain. The third, 
fourth, and fifth were taken possession of at half-past eight. 



1 



I 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 65 

Meantime, Nelson received a severe wound on the head 
from a piece of langridge sliot. Ca}3tain Berry caught him 
in his arms as he was falUng. The great effusion of blood 
occasioned an apprehension that the wound was mortal. 
Nelson himself thought so. A large flap of the skin of the 5 
forehead, cut from the bone, had fallen over one eye; and 
the other being blind, he was in total darkness. When he 
was carried down, the surgeon, — in the midst of a scene 
scarcely to be conceived by those who had never seen 
a cock-pit in time of action, and the heroism which is dis- lo 
played among its horrors, — with a natural and pardonable 
eagerness, quitted the poor fellow^ then under his hands 
that he might instantly attend the admiral. "No! "said 
Nelson, "I will take my turn with my brave fellows." 
Nor would he suff'er his own wound to be examined till 15 
every man who had been previously wounded was prop- 
erly attended to. Fully believing that the wound was 
mortal and that he was about to die, as he had ever 
desired, in battle and in victory, he called the chaplain, 
and desired him to deliver what he supposed to be his 20 
dying remembrance to Lady Nelson. 

When the surgeon came in due time to examine his 
wound, the most anxious silence prevailed; and the joy of 
the wounded men, and of the whole crew, when they 
heard that the hurt was merely superficial, gave Nelson 25 
deeper pleasure than the unexpected assurance that his life 
was in no danger. The surgeon requested and, as far as 
he could, ordered him to remain quiet. He was therefore 
left alone ; when suddenly a cry was heard on the deck, 
that the enemy's ship, the Orient, was on fire. In these 
confusion he found his way up, unassisted and unnoticed, 



2 Langridge shot. A kind of shot formerly used at sea to destroy sails 
and rigging. It was made of nails, bolts, and scraps of old iron, fastened 
together. 

10 Cock*pit. The room on a warship where the w( unded are cared for. 



66 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

and, to the astonishment of everyone, appeared on the 
quarter-deck, where he immediately gave orders that boats 
should be sent to the relief of the enemy. 

It was soon after nine that the fire on board the Orient 
5 broke out. Brueys (the French commander) was dead. 
He had received three wounds, yet would not leave his 
post; a fourth cut him almost in two. He desired not to 
be carried below, but to be left to die upon deck. The 
flames soon mastered his ship. Her sides had just been 

lo painted, and the oil jars and paint buckets were lying on 
the poop. By the prodigious light of this conflagration, 
the situation of the two fleets could now be perceived, the 
colors of both being clearly distinguishable. About ten 
o'clock the ship blew up, with a shock which was felt to 

15 tlie very bottom of every vessel. Many of her officers and 
men jumped overboard, some clinging to the spars and 
pieces of wreck with which the sea was strewn; others 
swimming to escape from the destruction which they 
momentarily dreaded. Some were picked up by our boats; 

20 and some, even in the heat and fury of the action, were 
dragged into the lower ports of the nearest British vessel 
by the British sailors. The greater part of her crew, how- 
ever, stood the danger till the last, and continued to fire 
from the lower deck. This tremendous explosion was 

25 followed by a silence not less awful. The firing imme- 
diately ceased on both sides; and the first sound which 
broke the silence was the dash of her shattered masts and 
yards falling into the water from the vast height to which 
they had been exploded. It is upon record that a battle 

30 between two armies was once broken off by an earthquake. 
Such an event would be felt like a miracle. But no inci- 
dent in war, produced by human means, has ever equaled 



30 Earthquake. Apparently Soiithey is thinking of the battle of Lake 
Trasiraene, between Hannibal and the Roman army, which wag not interrupted 
by an earthquake. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 67 

the sublimity of this instantaneous pause and all its 
circumstances. 

About seventy of the OrienVs crew were saved by the 
English boats. Among the many hundreds who perished 
were the commodore, Casa-Bianca, and his son, a brave 5 
boy, only ten years old. 

The firing recommenced with the ships to leeward of the 
center, and continued till about three. At daybreak the 
Guillaume Tell and the Genereux, the two rear ships of 
the enemy, were the only French ships of the line which lo 
had their colors flying. They cut their cables in the fore- 
noon, not having been engaged, and stood out to sea, and 
two frigates with them. These four vessels, however, were 
all that escaped; and the victory was the most complete 
and glorious in the annals of naval history. " Victory," 15 
. said Nelson, ' ' is not a name strong enough for such a 
scene." He called it a conquest. Of thirteen sail of the 
line, nine were taken and two burned; of the four frigates, 
one was sunk ; another, the Artemise, was burned in a vil- 
lainous manner by her captain, M. Estandlet, who, having 20 
fired a broadside at the Theseus^ struck his colors, then 
set fire to the ship, and escaped with most of his crew to 
shore. The British loss, in killed and wounded, amounted 
to 895; Westcott was the only captain who fell; 3105 of 
the French, including the wounded, were sent on shore by 25 
cartel, and 5225 perished. 

As soon as the conquest was completed, Nelson sent 
orders through the fleet to return thanksgiving in every 

'' Casa-Bianca. Mrs. Hemans' well-known poem will at once occur to the 
reader : 

" The boy stood on the burning deck, 
Whence all but he had fled," etc. 
26 By cartel. For exchange. 
28 Thanksgiving. 
" To THE Respective Captains op the Squadron : 

" Yanguard, off the mouth of the Nile, August 2, 1798. 
" Almighty God having blessed his Majesty's army with victory, the admiral 



68 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ship for the victory with which Almighty God had blessed 
his Majesty's arms. The French at Rosetta, who with 
miserable fear beheld the engagement, were at a loss to 
understand the stillness of the fleet during the perform- 
5 ance of this solemn duty; but it seemed to affect many of 
the prisoners, officers as well as men ; and graceless and 
godless as the officers were, some of them remarked tliat 
it was no wonder such order was preserved in the British 
navy when the minds of our men could be impressed with 

10 such sentiments after so great a victory, and at a moment 
of such confusion. The French at Eosetta, seeing their 
four ships sail out of the bay unmolested, endeavored to 
persuade themselves that they were in possession of the 
place of battle. But it was in vain thus to attempt, 

15 against their own secret and certain conviction, to deceive 
themselves ; and even if they could have succeeded in this, 
the bonfires which the Arabs kindled along the whole 
coast and over the country, for the three following nights, 
would soon have undeceived them. Thousands of Arabs 

20 and Egyptians lined the shore and covered the house-tops 
during the action, rejoicing in the destruction which had 
overtaken their invaders. Long after the battle innu- 
merable bodies were seen floating about the bay, in spite 
of all the exertions which were made to sink them, as well 

25 from fear of pestilence as from the loathing and horror 
which the sight occasioned. The shore, for an extent of 
four leagues, was covered with wreck; and the Arabs 
found employment for many days in burning on the 
beach the fragments which were cast up, for the sake of 

30 the iron. 

The victory was complete; but Nelson could not pursue 
it as he would have done, for want of means. Had he 



intends returning public thanksgiving for the same at two o'clock this day, 
and he recommends every ship aoing the same as soon as convenient. 

"Horatio Nblson." 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 69 

been provided with small craft, nothing could have pre- 
vented the destruction of the store-ships and transports m 
the port of Alexandria. Four bomb-vessels would at that 
time have burned the whole in a few hours. " Were I to 
die at this moment," said he in his dispatches to the 5 
Admiralty, " want of frigates would be found stamped on 
my heart! No words of mine can express what I have 
suffered, and am suffering, for want of them." 

Nelson was now at the summit of glory. Congratula- 
tions, rewards, and honors were showered upon him by all lo 
the states, and princes, and powers to whom his victory 
gave a respite. The first communication of this nature 
which he received was from the Turkish Sultan ; who, as 
soon as the invasion of Egypt was known, had called upon 
"all true believers to take arms against those swmish 15 
infidels the French, that they might deliver these blessed 
habitations from their hands"; and who had ordered his 
"pashas to turn night into day in their efforts to take 
vengeance." The present of " his imperial majesty, the 
powerful, formidable, and most magnificent Grand Seig- 20 
nior," was a pelisse of sables, with broad sleeves, valued at 
five thousand dollars, and a diamond aigrette, valued at 
eighteen thousand— the most honorable badge among the 
Turks; and in this instance more especially honorable, 
because it was taken from one of the royal turbans. ^ " If 25 
it were worth a million," said Nelson to his wife, "my 
pleasure would be to see it in your possession." The 
Sultan also sent, in a spirit worthy of imitation, a purse 
of two thousand sequins, to be distributed among the 



s stamped on my heart. A reference to Mary, Queen of England, who, 
after she had lost Calais. January 7, 1558, said that after her death the name 
would be found stamped upon her heart. 

21 Pelisse. A cloak. 

22 Aigrette. A sort of plume. 

89 Two thousand sequins. Something over four thousand dollars. 



70 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

wounded. The mother of the Sultan sent liini a box, set 
with diamonds, valued at one thousand pounds. Tlie Czar 
Paul, in whom the better part of his strangely com- 
pounded nature at this time predominated, presented him 
5 with his portrait, set in diamonds, in a gold box, accom- 
panied with a letter of congratulation, written by his own 
hand. The king of Sardinia also wrote to him, and sent 
a gold box, set with diamonds. Honors in profusion were 
awaiting him at Naples. In his own country he was 

ID created Baron Nelson of the Nile and of Burnham-Thorpe, 
with a pension of two thousand pounds for his own life 
and those of his two immediate successors. When the 
grant was moved in the House of Commons, General 
Walpole expressed an opinion that a higher degree of rank 

15 ought to be conferred. Mr. Pitt made answer that he 
thought it needless to enter into that question. " Admiral 
Nelson's fame," he said, " would be co-equal with the 
British name; and it would be remembered that he had 
obtained the greatest naval victory on record, when no 

20 man would think of asking whether he had been created 
a baron, a viscount, or an earl ! " 

Whatever may have been the motives of the ministry, 
and whatever the formalities with which they excused their 
conduct to themselves, the importance and magnitude of 

25 the victory were universally acknowledged. A grant of 
ten thousand pounds was voted to Nelson by the East India 
Company; the Turkish Company presented him with a 
piece of plate; the city of London presented a sword to 
him, and to each of his captains ; gold medals were distrib- 

Souted to the captains; and tlie first lieutenants of all the 
ships were promoted, as had been done after Lord Howe's 
victory. 



27 The Turkish Company. An En^li?h company trading with Turkey. 
31 Lord Howe's victory. Over the French, in June, 1794. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 71 



CHAPTER VI 



Nelson's health had suflPered greatly while he was in the 
Agamemnon. " My complaint," he said, " is as if a girth 
were buckled taut over my breast ; and my endeavor in the 
night is to get it loose." After the battle off Cape St. Vin- 
cent, he felt a little rest to be so essential to his recovery 5 
that he declared he would not continue to serve longer 
than the ensuing summer, unless it should be absolutely 
necessary; for, in his own strong language, he had then 
been four years and nine months without one moment's 
repose for body or mind. A few months' intermission of 10 
labor he had obtained — not of rest, for it was purchased 
with the loss of a limb; and the greater part of the time 
had been a season of constant pain. As soon as his shat- 
tered frame had sufficiently recovered for him to resume 
his duties, he was called to services of greater importance 15 
than any on which he had hitherto been employed, and 
they brought with them commensurate fatigue and care. 

The anxiety which he endured during his long pursuit of 
the enemy was rather changed in its direction, than abated, 
by their defeat: and this constant wakefulness of thought, 20 
added to the effect of his wound, and the exertions from 
which it was not possible for one of so ardent and wide- 
reaching a mind to spare himself, nearly proved fatal. On 
his way back to Italy he was seized with fever. For eigh- 
teen hours his life was despaired of ; and even when the 25 
disorder took a favorable turn, and he was so far recovered 
as again to appear on deck, he himself thought that his end 
was approaching — such was the weakness to which the 
fever and cough had reduced him. Writing to Earl St. 
Vincent, on the passage, he said to him, "I never expect, 30 
my dear lord, to see your face again. It may please God 
that this will be the finish to that fever of anxiety which I 
have endured from the middle of June; but be that as it 
pleases his goodness. I am resigned to his will." 



72 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Early on the 22d of September the poor, wretched Van- 
guard, as he called his shattered vessel, appeared in siglit 
of Naples. The Culloden and Alexander had preceded 
her by some days, and given notice of her approach. Many 
5 hundred boats and barges were ready to go forth and meet 
him, with music and streamers, and every demonstration 
of joy and triumph. Sir William and Lady Hamilton led 
the way in their state barge, and the king, who went out to 
meet him three leagues in the royal barge, came on board 

loand took him by the hand, calling him his deliverer and 
preserver; from all the boats around he was saluted with 
the same appellations ; the multitude who surrounded him 
when he landed repeated the same enthusiastic cries ; and 
the lazzaroni displayed their joy by holding up birds in 

15 cages, and giving them their liberty as he passed. 

His birthday, which occurred a week after his arrival, 
was celebrated with one of the most splendid fetes ever 
beheld at Naples. 

The battle of the Nile shook the power of France. Her 

20 most successful general, and her finest army, were blocked 
up in Egypt — hopeless, as it appeared, of return; and the 
government was in the hands of men without talents, 
without character, and divided among themselves. Aus- 
tria, whom Bonaparte had terrified into a peace, at a time 

25 when constancy on her part would probably have led 
to his destruction, took advantage of the crisis to renew the 
war. Russia also was preparing to enter the field with 
unbroken forces: led by a general whose extraordinary 
military genius would hav^e entitled him to a high and 

30 honorable rank in history, if it had not been sullied by all 
the ferocity of a barbarian. Naples, seeing its destruc- 



1* Lazzaroni. Neapolitan beggars, so called from Lazarus, the poor beggar. 
See Luke, 16. 

28 A general. Suvaroff (1729-1800), noted for his slaughter of the Poles in 
the suburbs of Warsaw in 1794, and again at Prague. Ai the storming of Ismail, 
in 1790, thirty-three thousand Turks were killed or severely wounded. 



I 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 73 

tion at hand, and thinking that the only means of avert- 
ing it was by meeting the danger, after long vacillations, 
which were produced by the fears and weakness and 
treachery of its council, agreed at last to join this new 
coalition, with a numerical force of eighty thousand men, 5 
Nelson told the king, in plain terms, that he had his choice, 
either to advance, trusting to God for his blessing on 
a just cause, and prej)ared to die sword in hand — or to 
remain quiet, and be kicked out of his kingdom: — one 
of these things must happen. 10 

Nelson's first object was the recovery of Malta — an island 
which the King of Naples pretended to claim. The Mal- 
tese, whom tlie villainous knights of their order had be- 
trayed to France, had taken up arms against their rapacious 
invaders, with a spirit and unanimity w^orthy of the high- 15 
est praise. They blockaded the French garrison by land, 
and a small squadron, under Captain Ball, began to block- 
ade them by sea on the 12th of October. Twelve days 
afterward Nelson arrived, and the little island of Gozo, 
dependent upon Malta, which had also been seized and gar- 20 
risoned by the French, capitulated soon after his arrival, 
and was taken possession of by the British, in the name of 
his Sicilian Majesty — a power who had no better claim to 
it than France. Having seen this effected, and reinforced 
Captain Ball, he left that able officer to perform a most 25 
arduous and important part, and returned himself to co- 
operate with the intended movements of the Neapolitans. 

General Mack was at the head of tlie Neapolitan troops. 
All that is now doubtful concerning this man is whether 
he was a coward or a traitor. At that time he was assidu- 30 
ously extolled as a most consummate commander, to whom 
Europe might look for deliverance; and when he was 



13 Villainous knights. The Knights of Malta received the island from 
Charles V. in 1530. Soutliey calls them villainous because they surrendered 
their island to Napoleon without resistance. 



14 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

introduced by the king and queen to the British admiral, the 
queen said to him, " Be to us by land, General, what my 
hero Nelson has been by sea." Mack, on his part, did not 
fail to praise the force which he was appointed to command. 
5 "It was," he said, "the finest army in Europe." Nelson 
agreed with him that there could not be finer men ; but 
when the general, at a i-eview, so directed the operations 
of a mock fight, that, by an unhappy blunder, his own 
troops were surrounded instead of those of the enemy, 

10 he turned to his friends and exclaimed, with bitterness, 
that the fellow did not understand his business. Another 
circumstance, not less characteristic, confirmed Nelson in 
his judgment. "General Mack," said he, in one of his let- 
ters, "cannot move without five carriages ! I have foj-med 

15 my opinion. I heartily pray I may be mistaken." 

While Mack, at the head of thirty-two thousand 
men, marched into the Roman state, five thousand 
Neapolitans were embarked on board the British and 
Portuguese squadron, to take possession of Leghorn. 

20 This was effected without opposition; and the Grand 
Duke of Tuscany, whose neutrality had been so out- 
rageously violated by the French, was better satisfied with 
the measure than some of the Neapolitans themselves. 
Naselli, their general, refused to seize tlie French vessels 

25 at Leghorn, because he and the Duke di Sangro, who Avas 
ambassador at the Tuscan court, maintained that the King 
of Naples was not at war with France. "What!" said 
Nelson, " has not the king received, as a conquest made by 
him, the republican flag taken at Gozo ? Is not his own 

30 flag flying there, and at Malta, not only by his permission, 
but by his order ? Is not his flag shot at every day by tlie 
French, and their shot returned from batteries which bear 
that flag ? Are not two frigates and a corvette placed un- 
der my orders ready to fight the French, meet them where 

35 they may ? Has not the king sent publicly from Naples, 
guns, mortars, etc., with officers and artillery, against the 



THE LIFE OF NELSON V5 

French in Malta ? If these acts are not tantamount to any 
written paper, I give up all knowledge of what is war." 
This reasoning was of less avail than argument addressed 
to the general's fears. Nelson told him that if he per- 
mitted the many hundred French who were then in the 5 
mole to remain neutral, till they had a fair opportunity of 
being active, they had one sure resource, if all other 
schemes failed, which was, to set one vessel on fire; the 
mole would be destroyed, probably the tow^n also; and the 
port ruined for twenty years. It was in vain to hope for lo 
anything- vigorous or manly from such men as Nelson 
was compelled to act with. The crews of the French ships 
and their allies were ordered to depart in two days. Four 
days elapsed, and nobody obeyed the order; nor, in spite of 
the representations of the British minister, Mr. Wyndham, 15 
were any means taken to enforce it: the true Neapolitan 
shuffle, as Nelson called it, took place on all occasions. 
After an absence of ten days he returned to Naples: and 
receiving intelligence there, from Mr. Wyndham, that the 
privateers were at last to be disarmed, the corn landed, 20 
and the crews sent away, he expressed his satisfaction at 
the news in characteristic language, saying, " So far I am 
content. The enemy will be distressed; and thank God, I 
shall get no money. The world, I know, think that money 
is our god; and now they will be undeceived, as far as 25 
relates to us." 

Odes, sonnets, and congratulatory poems of every de- 
scription were poured in upon Nelson on his arrival at 
Naples. An Irish Franciscan, who was one of the poets, 
not being contented with panegyric, upon this occasion 3° 
ventured upon a flight of prophecy, and predicted that 
Lord Nelson would take Rome with his ships. His lord- 
ship reminded Father M'Cormick that ships could not 
ascend the Tiber : but the father, who had probably forgot- 

29 Franciscan. A monk of the religious order of St. Francis. 



76 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ten this circumstance, met the objection with a bold front, 
and declared he saw that it would come to pass notwith- 
standing. Rejoicings of this kind were of short duration. 
The King of Naples was witli the army which had entered 
5 Rome; but the castle of St. Angelo was held by the Frencli, 
and thirteen thousand French were strongly posted in the 
Roman States at Castallana. Mack had marched against 
them with twenty thousand men. Nelson saw that the 
event was doubtful; or rather, that there could be very 

10 little hoi)e of the result. But the immediate fate of Naples, 
as he well knew, hung upon the issue. '*If Mack is 
defeated, " said he, ' ' in fourteen days this country is lost ; 
for the emperor has not yet moved his army, and Naples 
has not the power of resisting the enemy." 

15 His fears were soon verified. " The Neapolitan officers," 
said Nelson, "did not lose much honor, for they had not 
much to lose; but they lost all they had." General St. 
Philip commanded the right wing, of nineteen thousand 
men. He fell in with three thousand of the enemy ; and, 

20 as soon as he came near enough, deserted to them. One of 
his men had virtue enough to level a musket at him, and 
shot him through the arm ; but the wound was not suffi- 
cient to prevent him from joining with the French in 
pursuit of his own countrymen. Cannon, tents, baggage, 

25 and military chest, were all forsaken by the runaways, 
though they lost only forty men: for the French, having 
put them to flight, and got possession of everything, did 
not pursue an army of more than three times their own 
number. The main body of the Neapolitans, under Mack, 

30 did not behave better. The king returned to Naples ; Avhere 
every day brought with it the tidings of some new disgrace 
from the army, and the discovery of some new treachery at 
home; till four days after his return, the general sent him 
advice that there was no prospect of stopping the progress 

35 of the enemy, and that the royal family must look to their 
own personal safety. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 11 

On the night of the 21st of December Nelson landed, 
brought out the whole royal family, embarked them in 
three barges, and carried them safely, through a tremen- 
dous sea, to the Vanguard; on the 23d the fleet sailed; 
and, on the 26th, the royal family were landed at Palermo. 5 

The King of Sardinia, finding it impossible longer to en- 
dure the exactions of France and the insults of the French 
commissary, went to Leghorn, embarked on board a Danish 
frigate, and sailed, under British protection, to Sardinia — 
that part of his dominions which the maritime supremacy lo 
of England rendered a secure asylum. Tuscany was soon 
occupied by French troops. Nelson began to fear even for 
Sicily. '" Oh, my dear sir," said he, writing to Commodore 
Duckworth, "one thousand English troops would save 
Messina — and I fear General Stuart cannot give me men 15 
to save this most important island ! " But his representa- 
tions were not lost upon Sir Charles Stuart: this officer 
hastened immediately from Minorca with a thousand men, 
assisted in the measures of defense which were taken, and 
did not return before he had satisfied himself that, if the 20 
Neapolitans were excluded from the management of affairs, 
and the spirit of the peasantry properly directed, Sicily was 
safe. Before his coiliing Nelson had offered the king, if no 
resources should arrive, to defend Messina with the ship's 
company of an English man-of-war. 25 

Russia had now entered into the war. Corfu surrendered 
to a Russian and Turkish fleet, acting now, for the first 
time, in strange confederacj^ yet against a power which 
was certainly the common and worst enemy of both. Trow- 
bridge, having given up the blockade of Alexandria to Sir 30 
Sydney Smith, joined Nelson, bringing with him a consid- 

15 Messina. Important, as it commanded the narrow straits between Italy 
and Sicily. 

28 Corfu. Belonged to Venice, and had been occupied by France. 

28 In strange confederacy. They had continually been at war together 
before this. 



78 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

erable addition of strength; and in himself, wliat Nelson 
valued more, a man upon whose sagacity, indefatigable 
zeal, and inexhaustible resources, he could place full reli- 
ance. Trowbridge was instructed to commence the opera- 
5 tions against the French in the bay of Naples. Meantime, 
Cardinal Rulfo, a man of questionable character, but of a 
temper fitted for such times, having landed in Calabria, 
raised what he called a Christian army, composed of the 
best and the vilest materials: loyal peasants, enthusiastic 

lo priests and friars, galle}' slaves, the emptying of the jails, 
and banditti. The islands in the bay of Naples were jo}'- 
fully delivered up by the inhabitants, who were in a state 
of famine already, from the effect of this baleful revolution. 
Trowbridge distributed among them all his flour; and Nel- 

15 son pressed the Sicilian court incessantly for supplies; 
telling them that ten thousand pounds given away in pro- 
visions would, at this time, purchase a kingdom. Money, 
he was told, they liad not to give; and the wisdom and 
integrity which might have supplied its want were not to 

20 be found. "There is nothing," said he, "which I propose 
that is not, as far as orders go, implicitly complied with, 
but the execution is dreadful, and almost makes me mad. 
My desire to serve their majesties faithfully, as in my duty, 
has been such that I am almost blind and worn out; and 

25 cannot, in my present state, hold much longer," 

About this time intelligence arrived that the French fleet 
had escaped from Brest, under cover of a fog, passed Cadiz 
unseen by Lord Keith's squadron, in hazy weather, and 
entered the Mediterranean. It was said to consist of 

30 twenty-four sail of the line, six frigates, and three sloops. 
The object of the French was to liberate the Spanish fleet, 
form a junction with them, act against Minorca and Sicily, 
and overpower our naval force in tiie Mediterranean, by 



^T Brest. The French fleet had been blockaded in Brest by sixteen English 
ships. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON '^9 

falling' ill with detached squadrons, and thus destroying it 
ill detail. When they arrived off Carthagena, they re- 
quested the Spanish ships to make sail and join; but the 
Spaniards replied they had not men to man them. To 
this it was answered that the French had men enough on 5 
board for that purpose. But the Spaniards seem to have 
been apprehensive of delivering up their ships thus entirely 
into the power of such allies, and refused to come out. 
The fleet from Cadiz, however, consisting of from seven- 
teen to twenty sail of the line, got out; but met with a 10 
violent storm off the coast of Oran, which dismasted many 
of their ships, and so effectually disabled them as to pre- 
vent the junction and frustrate a well-planned expedition. 
Before this occurred, and while the junction was as 
probable as it would have been formidable, Nelson was in 15 
a state of the greatest anxiety. ' ' What a state am I in ! " 
said he to Earl St. Vincent. "If I go, I risk, and more 
than risk, Sicily : for we know, from experience, that more 
depends upon opinion than upon acts themselves, and as 
I stay, my heart is breaking." His first business was to 20 
summon Trowbridge to join him, with all the ships of the 
line under his command, and a frigate, if possible. Then 
hearing that the French had entered the Mediterranean, 
and expecting them at Palermo, where he had only his own 
ship, with that single ship he prepared to make all the 25 
resistance possible. Trowbridge having joined him, he left 
Captain E. J. Foote, of the Seahorse, to command the 
smaller vessels in the bay of Naples, and sailed with six 
ships, one a Portuguese, and a Portuguese corvette, telling 
Earl St. Vincent that the squadron should never fall into 30 
the hands of the enemy. " And before we are destroyed," 
said he, "I have little doubt but they will have their wings 
so completely clipped that they may be easily overtaken." 



19 Opinion. Nelson knew that the king would feel unprotected, if he Bhould 
leave Palermo to fight the combined French and Spanish fleets. 



80 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

While he sailed from Palermo, with the intention of 
collecting- his whole force, and keeping off Maretimo, either 
to receive reinforcements there if the French were bound 
upward or to hasten to Minorca if tliat should be tlieir 
5 destination, Captain Foote, in the Seahorse, with the Nea- 
politan frigates and some small vessels under his command, 
was left to act with a land force consisting of a few regular 
troops of four different nations, and with the armed rabble 
which Cardinal Ruffo called the Christian army. His di- 

lorections were to co-operate to the utmost of his power with 
royalists, at whose head Ruffo had been placed, and he had 
no other instructions whatever. Ruffo advancing, without 
any plan, but relying upon the enemy's want of numbers, 
which prevented them from attempting to act upon the 

15 offensive, and ready to take advantage of any accident 
which might occur, approached Naples. Fort St. Elmo, 
which commands the town, was wholly garrisoned by the 
French troops ; Ruffo proposed to the garrison to capitulate, 
on condition that their persons and property should be 

20 guaranteed, and that they should, at their own option, 
either be sent to Toulon or remain at Naples, without being 
molested either in tlieir persons or families. This capitula- 
tion was accepted ; it was signed by the cardinal, and the 
Russian and Turkish commanders ; and, lastly, by Captain 

25 Foote, as commander of the British force. About six-and- 
thirty hours afterward Nelson arrived in the bay, with a 
force which had joined him during his cruise, consisting of 
seventeen sail of the line, with seventeen hundred troops 
on board, and the prince-royal of Naples in the admiral's 

30 ship. A flag of truce was flying on the castles, and on 
board the Seahorse. Nelson made a signal to annul the 
treaty, declaring that he would grant rebels no other 
terms than those of unconditional submission. Cap- 
tain Foote was sent out of the bay, and the garrisons, taken 

* Bound upward ; i.e., farther into the Mediterranean. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 81 

out of the castles, under pretense of carrying the treaty 
into effect, were delivered over as rebels to the vengeance of 
the Sicilian court. A deplorable transaction ! a stain upon 
the memory of Nelson, and the honor of England. 

The castles of St. Elmo, Gaieta, and Capua remained to 5 
be subdued. On the land side there was no danger that 
the French in these garrisons should be relieved, for Su- 
varof was now beginning to drive the enemy before him; 
but Nelson thought his presence necessary in the bay of 
Naples : and when Lord Keith, having received intelligence lo 
that the French and Spanish fleets had formed a junction, 
and sailed f or Carthagena, ordered him to repair to Minorca 
with the whole or the greater part of his force, he sent 
Admiral Duckworth v^ith a small party only. 

Nelson was right in his judgment: no attempt was made 15 
upon Minorca; and the expulsion of the French from 
Naples may rather be said to have been effected, than 
accelerated, by the English and Portuguese of the allied 
fleet, acting upon shore, under Trowbridge. 

The Admiralty, however, thought it expedient to censure 20 
him for disobeying Lord Keith's orders, and thus hazarding 
Minorca, without, as it appeared to them, any sufficient 
reason ; and also for having landed seamen for the siege of 
Capua, to form part of an army employed in operations at 
a distance from the coast; where, in case of defeat, they 25 
might have been 131 even ted from returning to their ships; 
and they enjoined him " not to employ the seamen in like 
manner in future." This reprimand was issued before the 
event was known; though, indeed, the event would not 
affect the principle upon which it proceeded. When Nelson 30 
communicated the tidings of his complete success he said, 
in his public letter "that it would not be the less accept- 
able for having been principally brought about by British 
sailors." His judgment in thus employing them had been 
justified by the result ; and his joy was evidently heightened 35 
by the gratification of a professional and becoming pride. 



82 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

To the First Lord he said, at the same time, " I certainly, 
from having only a left hand, cannot enter into details 
which may explain the motives that actuated my conduct. 
I feel that I am fitter to do the action than to describe 
5 it." He then added that he would take care of Minorca. 
The Sicilian court were at this time duly sensible of the 
services which had been rendered them by the British fleet, 
and their gratitude to Nelson was shown with proper and 
princely munificence. They gave him the dukedom and 

10 domain of Bronte, worth about three thousand pounds a 
year. It was some days before he could be persuaded to 
accept it. The king is said to have addressed him in words 
which show that the sense of rank will sometimes confer a 
virtue upon those who seem to be most unworthy of the 

15 lot to which they have been born: " Lord Nelson, do you 
wish that your name alone should pass with honor to pos- 
terity; and that I, Ferdinand Bourbon, should appear 
ungrateful?" He gave him also, when the dukedom was 
accepted, a diamond-hilted sword, which his father Charles 

20 in. of Spain, had given him on his accession to the throne 
of the Two Sicilies. Nelson said, " The reward was mag- 
nificent, and worth 3^ of a king, and he was determined that 
the inhabitants on the domain should be the happiest in all 
his Sicilian Majesty's dominions. Yet," said he, speaking 

25 of these and the other remunerations which were made him 
for his services, "these presents, rich as they are, do not 
elevate me. My pride is that at Constantinople, from the 
grand seignior to the lowest Turk, the name of Nelson is 
familiar in their mouths; and in this country I am every- 

30 thing which a grateful monarch and people can call me." 
Nelson, however, had a pardonable pride in the outward 
and visible signs of honor which he had so fairly won. 
He was fond of his Sicilian title ; the signification, per- 
haps, pleased him ; — Duke of Thunder was what in Dahomey 

8* Duke of Thunder. Bronte is the Greek word for thunder. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON ' 83 

would be called a stroyig name; it was to a sailor's taste; 
and, certainly, to no man could it ever be more applicable. 
But a simple offering, which he received not long after- 
ward, from the island of Zante, affected him with a 
deeper and finer feeling. The Greeks of that little com- 5 
raunity sent him a golden-headed sword, and a truncheon, 
set round with all the diamonds that the island could fur- 
nish, in a single row. They thanked him " for having, by 
his victory, preserved that part of Greece from the liorrors 
of anarchy; and prayed that his exploits might accelerate lo 
the day in which, amidst the glory and peace of thrones, 
the miseries of the human race would cease." 

Nelson perceived that no object was now so essential for 
the tranquillity of Naples as the recovery of Rome; which, 
in the present state of things, when Suvarof was driving 15 
the French before him, would complete the deliverance of 
Italy. He applied, therefore, to Sir James St. Clair Ers- 
kine, who, in the absence of General Fox, commanded at 
Minorca, to assist in this great object with twelve hundred 
men. " The field of glory," said he, " is a large one, and 20 
was never more open to anyone than at this moment to 
you. Rome would throw open her gates, and receive you 
as her deliverer : and the Pope would owe his restoration 
to a heretic." But Sir James Erskine looked only at the 
difficulties of the undertaking. "Twelve hundred men," 25 
he thought, " would be too small a force to be committed 
in such an enterprise; for Civita Vecchia was a regular 
fortress." 

What this general thought it imprudent to attempt. Nel- 
son and Trowbridge effected, without his assistance, by a 30 
. small detachment from the fleet. 

Having thus completed his work upon the continent of 
Italy, Nelson's whole attention was directed toward Malta, 
where Captain Ball, with most inadequate means, was be- 

27 Civita Vecchia. A seaport, thirty-six miles northwest of Rome. 



84 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

sieging the French garrison. The garrison consisted of five 
thousand troops; the besieging force of five Imndred Eng- 
lish and Portuguese marines, and about fifteen Imndred 
armed peasants. Long and repeatedly did Nelson solicit 
5 troops to effect the reduction of this important place. " It 
has been no fault of the navy," said he, " that Malta has 
not been attacked by land; but we have neither the means 
ourselves, nor influence with those who have." Sir James 
Erskine was expecting General Fox; he could not act with- 

loout orders; and not having, like Nelson, that lively spring 
of hope within him, which partakes thougli of the nature 
of faith to work miracles in war, he thought it " evident 
that unless a respectable land force, in numbers sufficient 
to undertake the siege of such a garrison, in one of the 

15 strongest places of Europe, and supplied with proportionate 
artillery and stores, were sent against it, no reasonable 
hope could be entertained of its surrender." 

At length General Fox arrived at Minorca, and, at length, 
permitted Colonel Graham to go to Malta, but with means 

20 miserably limited. In fact, the expedition was at a stand 
for want of money; when Trowbridge, arriving at Messina 
to co-operate in it, and finding this fresh delay, immedi- 
ately offered all that he could command of his own. "I 
procured him, my lord," said he to Nelson, "fifteen thou- 

25 sand of my cobs: every farthing, and every atom of me 
shall be devoted to the cause." " What can this mean? " 
said Nelson, when he learned that Colonel Graham was 
ordered not to incur any expense for stores, or any articles 
except provisions, — " the cause cannot stand still for want 

30 of a little money. If nobody will pay it, I will sell Bronte, 
and the Emperor of Russia's box." And he actually 
pledged Bronte for £6600, if there should be any difficulty 



25 Cobs. Spanish dollars. These were frequently given as prize-money to 
English sailors at this time. They were obtained from captured Spanish 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 85 

about paying the bills. The long-delayed expedition was 
thus, at last, set forth; but Trowbridge little imagined in 
what scenes of misery he was to bear his part. He looked 
to Sicily for supplies; it was the interest, as well as the 
duty of the Sicilian government, to use every exertion for 5 
furnishing them; and Nelson and the British ambassador 
were on the spot to press upon them the necessity of exer- 
tion. But though Nelson saw with what a knavish crew 
the Sicilian court was surrounded, he was blind to the vices 
of the court itself, and never even suspected the crooked lo 
policy which it was remorselessly pursuing. He begged, 
almost on his knees, he said, small supplies of money and 
corn, to keep the Maltese from starving. And w^hen the 
court granted a small supply, protesting their poverty, he 
believed their protestations, and was satisfied with their 15 
professions, instead of insisting that the restrictions upon 
the exportation of corn should be withdrawn. Captain 
Ball, with more decision than Nelson himself would have 
shown at that time and upon that occasion, ventured upon 
a resolute measure, for which his name would deserve 20 
always to be held in veneration by the Maltese, even if it 
had no other claims to the love and reverence of a grateful 
people. Finding it hopeless longer to look for succor or 
common humanity from the deceitful and infatuated court 
of Sicily, which persisted in prohibiting, by sanguinary 25 
edicts, tlie exportation of supplies, at his own risk he sent 
his first lieutenant to the port of Messina, with orders to 
seize, and bring with him to Malta, the ships which were 
there lying laden with corn, of the number of which he 
had received accurate information. These orders were 30 
executed, to the great delight and advantage of the ship- 
owners and proprietors; the necessity of raising the siege 
was removed, and Captain Ball waited in calmness for the 
consequences to himself. " But," said Mr. Colei'idge, " not 

3* Mr. Coleridge. The poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). 



86 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

a complaint, not a murmur, proceeded from the court of 
Naples: the sole result was that the governor of Malta 
became an especial object of its hatred, its fear, and its 
respect." 
5 Nelson himself, at the beginning of February, sailed for 
tliat island. On the way he fell in with a French squad- 
ron bound for its relief, and consisting of the Genereux, 
seventy-four, three frigates, and a corvette. One of these 
fiigates and the line-of-battle ship were taken; the others 

lo escaped, but failed in their purpose of reaching La Valette. 
This success was peculiarly gratifying to Nelson for many 
reasons. During some months he had acted as commander- 
in-chief in the Mediterranean, while Lord Keith was in 
England. Lord Keith was now returned, and Nelson had, 

15 upon his own plan and at his own risk, left him to sail for 
Malta; "for which," said he, "if I had not succeeded, I 
might have been broke; and if I had not acted thus, the 
Genereux never would have been taken." This ship was 
one of those which had escaped from Aboukir. Two 

20 frigates and the Guillaume Tell, eighty-six, were all that 
now remained of the fleet which Bonaparte had conducted 
to Egypt. The Guillaume Tell was at this time closely 
watched in the harbor of La Valette; and shortly after- 
ward, attempting to make her escape from thence, was 

25 taken, after an action in which greater skill was never 
displayed by British ships, nor greater gallantry by an 
enemy. Nelson, rejoicing at what he called this glorious 
finish to the whole French Mediterranean fleet, rejoiced 
also that he was not present to have taken a sprig of these 

30 brave men's laurels. " They are," said he, "and I glory 
in them, my children — they served in my school; and all 
of us caught our professional zeal and fire from the great 



- The governor of Malta. Captain Ball. 

1" Broke. His career might have been mined (by his losing his commis- 
sion). Nelson often used the past tense form as a participle. 



I 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 87 

and good Earl St. Vincent. What a pleasure, what happi- 
ness, to have the Nile fleet all taken under my orders and 
regulations ! " The two frigates still remained in La 
Valette; before its surrender they stole out; one was taken 
in the attempt, the other was the only ship of the whole 5 
fleet whicii escaped capture or destruction. 

Letters were found on board the Guillaume Tell showing 
that the French were now becoming hopeless of preserving 
the conquest whicli they had so foully acquired. Trow- 
bridge and his brother officers were anxious that Nelson lo 
should have the honor of signing the capitulation. They 
told him that they absolutely, as far as they dared, insisted 
on his staying to do this; but their earnest and affectionate 
entreaties were vain. Sir William Hamilton had just 
been superseded; Nelson had no feeling of cordiality 15 
toward Lord Keith; and thinking that, after Earl St. 
Vincent, no man had so good a claim to the command in 
the Mediterranean as himself, he applied for permission to 
return to England, telling the First Lord of the Admiralty 
that his spirit could not submit patiently, and that he was 20 
a broken-hearted man. 

A ship could not be spared to convey him to England. 
He therefore traveled through Germany to Hamburg, in 
company with his friends. Sir William and Lady Hamil- 
ton. The Queen of Naples went with them to Vienna. 25 
While they were at Leghorn, upon a report that the French 
were approaching (for, through the folly of weak courts 
and the treachery of venal cabinets, they had now recov- 
ered their ascendency in Italy), the people rose tumultu- 
ously, and would fain have persuaded Nelson to lead them 30 
against the enemy. Public honors, and yet more gratify- 
ing testimonials of public admiration, awaited Nelson 
wherever he went. The Prince of Esterhazy entertained 
him in a style of Hungarian magnificence — a hundred 
grenadiers, each six feet in height, constantly waiting at 35 
table. At Magdeburg, the master of the hotel where he 



88 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

was entertained contrived to show him for money, ad- 
mitting the curious to mount a ladder and peep at him 
through a small window. A German pastor, between 
seventy and eighty years old, traveled forty miles with the 
5 Bible of his parish church, to request that Nelson would 
write his name on the first leaf of it. He called him the 
savior of the Christian world. The old man's hope de- 
ceived him. There was no Nelson upon shore, or Europe 
would have been saved; but, in his foresight of the horrors 
10 with which all Germany and all Christendom were threat- 
ened by France, the pastor could not possibly have appre- 
hended more than has actually taken place. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Nelson was welcomed in England with every mark of 
popular honor. At Yarmoutli, where he landed, every 

15 ship in the harbor hoisted her colors. The mayor and 
corporation waited upon him with the freedom of the 
town, and accompanied him in procession to church, with 
all the naval officers on shore, and the principal inhabi- 
tants. Bonfires and illuminations concluded the day; and, 

2oon the morrow, the volunteer cavalry drew up and saluted 
him as he departed, and followed the carriage to the 
borders of the county. At Ipswich the people came out 
to meet him, drew him a mile into the town and three 
miles out. When he was in the Agamemnon he wished 

25 to represent this place in Parliament, and some of his 
friends had consulted the leading men of the corporation; 
the result was not successful, and Nelson, observing that 
he would endeavor to find out a preferable path into Par- 
liament, said there might come a time when the people of 



9 Saved. From Napoleon. 

23 Drew him. Took the horses from his carriage, and drew it themselves. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 89 

Ipswich would think it an honor to have had him for their 
representative. In London he was feasted by the city, 
drawn by the populace from Ludgate Hill to Guildhall, 
and received the thanks of the common council for his 
great victory, and a gold-hilted sword studded with 5 
diamonds. 

The Addington administration was just at this time 
formed; and Nelson, who had solicited employment and 
had been made vice-admiral of the blue, was sent to the 
Baltic, as second in command under Sir Hyde Parker, by lo 
Earl St. Vincent, the new First Lord of the Admiralty. 
The three northern courts had formed a confederacy for 
making England resign her naval rights. Of these courts 
Russia was guided by the passions of its emperor, Paul, 
a man not without fits of generosity and some natural 15 
goodness, but subject to the wildest humors of caprice, and 
crazed by the possession of greater power than can ever be 
safely, or perhaps innocently, possessed by weak human- 
ity. Denmark was French at heart, ready to co-operate in 
all the views of France, to recognize all her usurpations, 20 
and obey all her injunctions. Sweden, under a king 
whose principles were right and whose feelings were 
generous, but who had a taint of hereditary insanity, 
acted in acquiescence with the dictates of two powers 
whom it feared to offend. Such a combination, under the 25 
influence of France, would soon have become formidable; 
and never did the British cabinet display more decision 
than in instantly preparing to crush it. They erred, how- 
ever, in permitting any petty consideration to prevent them 
from appointing Nelson to the command. The public 30 
properly murmured at seeing it intrusted to another; and 
he himself said to Earl St. Vincent that, circumstanced as 
he was, this expedition would probably be the last service 



"> Addington administration. The administration in which Mr. Addington 
was premier, 1801-1804. 



90 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

that he should ever perform. The earl, in reply, besought 
him not to suffer himself to be carried away by any sudden 
impulse. 
The season happened to be unusually favorable; so mild 
5 a winter had not been known in the Baltic for many years. 
When Nelson joined the fleet at Yarmouth, he found the 
admiral " a little nervous about dark nights and fields of 
ice." "But we must brace up," said he; "these are not 
times for nervous systems. I hope we shall give our 

lo northern enemies that hailstorm of bullets which gives our 
dear country the dominion of the sea." 

The fleet sailed on the 12th of March. Mr. Vansittart 
sailed in it, the British cabinet still hoping to obtain its end 
by negotiation. It was well for England that Sir Hyde 

15 Parker placed a fuller confidence in Nelson than the Gov- 
ernment seems to have done at this most important crisis. 
Her enemies might well have been astonished at learning 
that any other man should for a moment have been thought 
of for the command. But so little deference was paid, even 

20 at this time, to his intuitive and all-commanding genius, 
that when the fleet had reached its first rendezvous at the 
entrance of the Cattegat, he had received no official com- 
munication whatever of the intended operations. His 
own mind had been made up upon them with its accus- 

25 tomed decision. "All I have gathered of our last plans," 
said he, "I disapprove most exceedingly. Honor may 
arise from them, good cannot. I hear we are likely to 
anchor outside of Cronenburg Castle, instead of Copen- 
hagen, which would give weight to our negotiation. A 

30 Danish minister would think twice before he would put his 
name to war with England, when the next moment he 
would probably see his master's fleet in flames and his 

22 Cattegat. An arm of the North Sea, 150 miles long, and 90 miles broad, 
between Sweden and Jutland. 

2*^ Cronenburg Castle. A splendid fortress, about twenty miles from 
Copenhagen. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 01 

capital in ruins. The Dane should see our flag- every 
moment he lifted up his head." 

Mr. Vansittart left the fleet at the Scaw, and preceded it 
in a frigate with a flag of truce. Precious time was lost by 
tliis delay, which was to be purchased by the dearest blood of 5 
Britain and Denmark. According to the Danes themselves 
the intelligence that a British fleet was seen off the Sound 
produced a much more general alarm in Copenhagen than 
its actual arrival in the roads, for their means of defense 
were at that time in such a state that they could hardly 10 
hope to resist, still less to repel, an enemy. On the 21st 
Nelson had a long conference with Sir Hyde, and the next 
day addressed a letter to him 'worthy of himself and of the 
occasion. Mr. Vansittart's report had then been received. 
It represented the Danish Government as in tlie highest 15 
degree hostile, and their state of preparation as exceeding 
what our cabinet had supposed possible; for Denmark had 
profited, with all activity, of the leisure which had so 
impoliticly been given her. "The more I have reflected," 
said Nelson to his commander, ' ' the more I am confirmed 20 
in opinion that not a moment should be lost in attacking 
the enemy. They will every day and every hour be 
stronger; we shall never be so good a njatch for them as . 
at this moment. Tlie only consideration is, how to get at 
them with the least risk to our ships. Here you are, with 25 
almost the safety — certainly with the honor— of England 
more intrusted to you than ever yet fell to the lot of any 
British officer. On your decision depends whether our 
country shall be degraded in the eyes of Europe, or whether 
she shall rear her head higher than ever. Again I do 30 
repeat, never did our country depend so much upon the 
success of any fleet as on this. How best to honor her and 



Scaw. A cape at the extreme north of Denmark. 

Sound. The strait leading from the Cattegat into the Baltic. 



92 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

abate the pride of her enemies must be the subject of your 
deepest consideration." 

Supposing him to force the passage of the Sound, Nelson 
thought some damage might be done among the masts and 
5 yards, though, perhaps, not one of them but would be 
serviceable again. "If the wind be fair," said he, "and 
you determine to attack the ships and Crown Islands, you 
must expect the natural issue of such a battle — ships crip- 
pled, and perhaps one or two lost; for the wind which 

10 carries you in will most probably not bring out a crippled 
ship. This mode I call taking the bull by the horns. It, 
however, will not prevent the Revel ships or the Swedes 
from joining the Danes; arid to prevent this is, in my 
humble opinion, a measure absolutely necessary, and still 

15 to attack Copenhagen." For this he proposed two modes. 
One was to pass Cronenburg, taking the risk of danger; 
take the deepest and straiglitest channel along the Middle 
Grounds; and then, coming down the Garbar or King's 
Channel, attack the Danish line of floating batteries and 

20 ships, as might be found convenient. This would prevent 
a junction, and might give an opportunity of bombarding 
Copenhagen. Or to take the passage of the Belt, which 

, might be accomplished in four or five days; and then the 
attack by Draco might be made and the junction of the 

25 Russians prevented. Supposing them through the Belt, 
he proposed that a detachment of the fleet should be sent 
to destroy the Russian squadron at Revel, and that the 
business at Copenhagen should be attempted with the 



■^ Crown Islands. Two batteries on islands about half a mile from 
Copenhagen. 

12 Revel ships. The Russian ships were at Revel. 

1^ Middle Grounds. Sandbanks near Copenhagen. 

22 The Belt. There are two longer passages, into the Baltic around the 
Island of Zealand, on which Copenhagen is situated. These are called the 
Great Belt and the Little Belt. The Great Belt is here meant. 

24 Draco. A point on the southeast of the Island of Amak. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 93 

remainder. "The measure," he said, "miglit be thought 
bold, but the boldest measures are tlie safest." 

The pilots, as men who had nothing but safety to think 
of, were terrified by the formidable report of the batteries 
of Elsineur and the tremendous preparations which our 5 
negotiators, who were now returning from their fruitless 
mission, had witnessed. They, therefore, persuaded Sir 
Hyde to prefer the passage of the Belt. " Let it be by the 
Sound, by the Belt, or anyhow," cried Nelson, " only lose 
not an hour ! " On the 26th they sailed for the Belt. Such lo 
was the habitual reserve of Sir Hyde that his own captain — 
the captain of the fleet— did not know which course he had 
resolved to take till the fleet were getting under weigh. 
When Captain Domett was thus apprised of it, he felt it 
his duty to represent to the admiral his belief that if that 15 
course were persevered in, the ultimate object would be 
totally defeated. It was liable to long delays and to acci- 
dents of ships grounding. In the whole fleet there were 
only one captain and one pilot who knew anything of this 
formidable passage, as it was then deemed, and their knowl- 20 
edge was very slight. Their instructions did not authorize 
them to attempt it. Supposing them safe through the 
Belts, the heavy ships could not come over the Grounds to 
attack Copenhagen, and light vessels would have no effect 
on such a line of defense as had been prepared against 25 
them. Domett urged these reasons so forcibly that Sir 
Hyde's opinion was shaken, and he consented to bring the 
fleet to, and send for Nelson on board. There can be little 
doubt but that the expedition would have failed if Captain 
Domett had not thus timely and earnestly given his advice. 30 
Nelson entirely agreed with him, and it was finally deter- 
mined to take the passage of the Sound, and the fleet 
returned to its former anchorage. 

The next day was more idly expended in dispatching a 
flag of truce to the governor of Cronenburg Castle to ask 35 
whether he had received orders to fire at the British fleet, 



94 THE LIFE OF NEL80N 

as the admiral must consider the first gun to be a declara- 
tion of war on the part of Denmark. A soldier-like and 
becoming answer was returned to this formality. The 
governor said that the British minister had not been sent 
5 away from Copenhagen, but had obtained a passport at his 
own demand. He himself, as a soldier, could not meddle 
with politics, but he was not at liberty to suffer a fleet, of 
which the intention was not yet known, to approach the 
guns of the castle w^liich he had the honor to command ; 

loand he requested, if the British admiral should think 
proper to make any proposals to the King of Denmark, 
that he might be apprised of it before the fleet approached 
nearer. During this intercourse a Dane who came on 
board the commander's ship, having occasion to express his 

15 business in writing, found the pen blunt, and, holding it 
up, sarcastically said : "If your guns are not better pointed 
than your pens, you will make little impression on Copen- 
hagen ! " 

On that day intelligence reached the admiral of the loss 

20 of one of his fleet, the Invincible, seventy-four, wrecked on 
a sandbank as she' was coming out of Yarmouth. Four 
hundred of her men perished in her. Nelson, who was 
now appointed to lead the van, shifted his flag to the 
Elephant, Captain Foley, a lighter ship than the St. 

25 George, and therefore fitter for the expected operations. 
The two following days were calm. Orders had been given 
to pass the Sound as soon as the wind would permit; and 
on the afternoon of the 29th the ships were cleared for 
action with an alacrity characteristic of British seamen. 

30 At daybreak on the 30th it blew a topsail breeze from N. W. 
The signal was made, and the fleet moved on in order of 
battle. Nelson's division in the van. Sir Hyde's in the 
center, and Admiral Graves' in the rear. 

4 Sent away. Sending away a foreign minister denotes a rupture of 
frioiully relations with the power he represents. 
30 Topsail breeze. A breeze not too heavy for a ship to carry her topsails. 



THE LIFE OF JSELSON 95 

The whole force consisted of fifty-one sail of various 
descriptions, of wliicli sixteen were of the line. The 
greater part of the bomb and gun vessels took their stations 
off Cronenburg' Castle to cover the fleet, while others on 
the larboard were ready to engage the Swedish shore. 5 
The Danes, having improved every moment which ill- 
timed negotiation and baffling weather gave them, had 
lined their shore with batteries; and as soon as the Mon- 
arch, which was the leading sbip, came abreast of them, a 
fire was opened from about a hundred pieces of cannon lo 
and mortars. Our light vessels immediately, in return, 
opened their tii-e upon the castle. The enemy's shot fell 
near enough to splash the water on board our ships. Not 
relying upon any forbearance of the Swedes, they meant 
to have kept the mid-cbannel, but when they perceived 15 
that not a shot was fired from Helsinburg, and that no 
batteries were to be seen on the Swedish shore, they 
inclined to that side, so as completely to get out of reach 
of the Danish guns. The uninterrupted blaze which was 
kept up from them till the fleet had passed served only to 20 
exhilarate our sailors and afford them matter fo)* jest, as 
the shot fell in showers a full cable's length short of its 
destined aim. A few rounds were returned from some of 
our leading ships till they perceived its inutility. This, 
however, occasioned the only bloodshed of the day — some 25 
of our men being killed and wounded by the bursting of a 
gun. As soon as the main body had passed, the gun vessels 
followed, desisting from their bombardment, which had 
been as innocent as that of the enemy, and about mid-day 
the whole fleet anchored between the island of Huen and 30 



2 Of the line. Ships large enough to be in the line of battle were called 
ships of the line ; a war ship larger thaii a f 1 igate. 

5 Larboard. The left side of a ship. The word " larboard '' is now nearly 
obsolete, and " port " has taken its place. 

18 Helsinburg. On the Swedish shore, opposite Elsinore. 



96 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Copeiihag-en. Sir Hyde, with Nelson, Admiral Graves, 
some of the senior captains, and the commanding officers 
of the artillery and the troops, then proceeded in a lugger 
to reconnoiter the enemy's means of defense, a formidable 
5 line of ships, radeaus, pontoons, galleys, fire-ships, and 
gunboats, flanked and supported by extensive batteries, 
and occupying, from one extreme point to the other, an 
extent of nearly four miles. 
A council of war was held in the afternoon. It was ap- 

lo parent that the Danes could not be attacked without great 
difficulty and risk; and some of the members of the coun- 
cil spoke of the number of the Swedes and Russians whom 
they should afterward have to engage, as a consideration 
which ought to be borne in mind. Nelson, who kept pac- 

15 ing the cabin, impatient as he ever was of anything which 
savored of irresolution, repeatedly said, "The more nu- 
merous the better: I wish they were twice as many — the 
easier the victory, depend on it." The plan upon which he 
had determined if ever it should be his fortune to bring a 

20 Baltic fleet to action, was to attack the head of their line 
and confuse their movements. " Close with a French- 
man," he used to say, "but out-maneuver a Russian." 
He offered his services for the attack, requiring ten sail of 
tlie line, and the whole of the smaller craft. Sir Hyde 

25 gave him two more 1 in e-of -battle ships than he asked, and 
left everything to his judgment. 

The enemy's force was not the only, nor the greatest, 
obstacle with which the British fleet had to contend : there 
was another to be overcome before they could come in con- 

30 tact with it. The channel was little known and extremely 
intricate: all the buoys had been removed; and the Danes 
considered this difficulty as almost insuperable, thinking 

5 Radeaus. Rafts. 

5 Pontoons. Low flat vessels resembling barges, used for making floating 
bridges, and in careening vessels. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON ^1 

the channel impracticable for so lavg-e a fleet. Nelson him- 
self saw the soundings made, and the buoys laid down, 
boating it upon this exhausting service, day and night, till 
it was effected. When this was done, he thanked God for 
having enabled him to get through this difficult part of his 5 
duty. " It had worn him down," he said, " and was infin- 
itely more grievous to him than any resistance which he 
could experience from the enemy." 

At the first council of war, opinions inclined to an attack 
from the eastward ; but the next day, the wind being lo 
southerly, after a second examination of the Danish posi- 
tion, it was determined to attack fi'om the south, approach- 
ing in the manner which Nelson had suggested in his first 
thoughts. On the morning of the 1st of April, the whole 
fleet removed to an anchorage within two leagues of the 15 
town, and off the N. W. end of the Middle Ground— a shoal 
lying exactly before the town, at about three-quarters of a 
mile's distance, and extending along its whole sea front. 
The King's Channel, where there is deep water, is betw^een 
this shoal and the town ; and here the Danes had arranged 20 
their line of defense, as near the shore as possible ; nineteen 
ships and floating batteries, flanked, at the end nearest the 
town, by the Crown Batteries, w^hich were two artificial 
islands at the mouth of the harbor — most formidable works ; 
the larger one having, by the Danish account, sixty-six 25 
guns; but, as Nelson believed, eighty-eight. The fleet 
having anchored, Nelson, with Riou, in the Amazon^ made 
his last examination of the ground; and, about one o'clock, 
returning to his own ship, threw out the signal to weigh. 
It was received with a shout throughout the whole divis- 30 
ion; they weighed with a light and favorable wind: the 
narrow channel between the island of Saltholm and the 



2 Soundings. Sounding is measuring the depth of water with a lead 
attached to a long line. 
89 Weigh. To weigh anchor ; to lift the anchor and get under way. 



98 TEE LIFE OF NELSON 

Middle Ground had been accurately buoyed; the small 
craft pointed out the course distinctly ; Riou led the way ; 
tlie whole division coasted along the outer edge of the 
shoal, doubled its further extremity, and anchored there 
5 otf Draco Point, just as the darkness closed — the headmost 
of the enemy's line not being more than two miles distant. 
The signal to prepare for action had been made early in 
the evening; and, as his own anchor dropped. Nelson 
called out, "I will fight them the moment 1 have a fair 

ID wind." It had been agreed that Sir Hyde, with the re- 
maining ships, should weigii on the following morning, at 
the same time as Nelson, to menace the Crown Batteries 
on his side, and the four ships of the line which lay at the 
entrance of the arsenal ; and to cover our own disabled 

15 sliips as they came out of action. 

The Danes, meantime, had not been idle. No sooner 
did the guns of Cronenberg make it known to the whole 
city that all negotiation was at an end, that the British 
fleet was passing the Sound, and that the dispute between 

20 the two crowns must now be decided by arms, than a spirit 
displayed itself most honorable to the Danish character. 
All ranks offered themselves to the service of their coun- 
try; the university furnished a corps of twelve hundred 
youths, the flower of Denmark— it was one of those emer- 

25 gencies in which little drilling or discipline is necessary to 
render courage available; they had nothing to learn but 
how to manage the guns, and were employed day and 
night in practicing them. When the movements of Nel- 
son's squadron were perceived, it was known when and 

30 where the attack was to be expected, and the line of 
defense was manned indiscriminately by soldiers, sailors, 
and citizens. Had not the whole attention of the Danes 
been directed to strengthening their own means of defense, 
they might most materially have annoyed the invading 

35 squadron, and, perhaps, frustrated the impending attack; 
for the British ships were crowded in an anchoring ground 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 99 

of little extent. It was calm, so that mortar boats might 
have acted against them to the utmost advantage, and 
they were within range of shells from Amak Island. A 
few fell among them, but the enemy soon ceased to fire. 
It was learned afterward, that, fortunately for the fleet, 5 
the bed of the mortar had given way, and the Danes either 
could not get it replaced, or, in the darkness, lost the 
direction. 

Between eight and nine next morning the pilots were 
ordered on board the admiral's ship. They were mostly men : 
who had been mates in Baltic traders, and their hesitation 
about the bearing of the east end of the shoal, and the exact 
line of deep water, gave ominous warning of how little 
their knowledge was to be trusted. The signal for action 
had been made— the wind was fair— not a moment to be 15 
lost. Nelson urged them to be steady, to be resolute, and 
to decide ; but they wanted the only ground for steadiness 
and decision in such cases, and Nelson had reason to regret 
that he had not trusted to Hardy's single report. This was 
one of the most painful moments of his life, and he always 20 
spoke of it with bitterness. " I experienced in the Sound," 
said he, ' " the misery of having the honor of our country 
intrusted to a set of pilots who have no other thought than 
to keep the ships clear of danger, and their own silly heads 
clear of shot. Everybody knows what I must have suf- 25 
fered; and if any merit attaches itself to me, it was for 
combating the dangers of the shallows in defiance of 
them." At length Mr. Bryerly, the master of the Bellona, 
declared that he was prepared to lead the fleet. His judg- 
ment was acceded to by the rest; they returned to their 30 
ships, and, at half-past nine, tlie signal was made to weigh 
in succession. 



1 Mortar boats. Vessels armed witli mortars, or short, heavy guns for 
firing shells. 
6 Bed of the mortar. The heavy timbers on which the mortar is mounted. 



100 TEE LIFE OF NELSON 

At five minutes after ten the action began. The first half 
of our fleet was engaged in about half an hour, and by half- 
past eleven the battle became general. The plan of the 
attack had been complete; but seldom has any plan been 
5 more disconcerted by untoward accidents. Of twelve 
ships of the line, one was entirely useless, and two others 
in a situation where they could not render half the service 
which was required of them. Of the squadron of gun- 
brigs only one could get into action; the rest were pre- 

lo vented, by baffling currents, from weathering the eastern 

end of the shoal; and only two of the bomb vessels could 

reach their station on the Middle Ground, and open their 

mortars on the arsenal, firing over both fleets. 

Nelson's agitation had been extreme when he saw^ him- 

15 self, before the action began, deprived of a fourth part of 
his ships of the line ; but no sooner was he in battle, where 
his squadron was received with the fire of more than a 
thousand guns, than, as if that artillery, like music, had 
driven away all care and painful thoughts, his countenance 

20 brightened, and, as a bystander describes him, his conver- 
sation became joyous, animated, elevated, and delightful. 
The commander-in-chief, meantime, near enough to the 
scene of action to know the unfavorable accidents which 
had so materially weakened Nelson, and yet too distant to 

25 know the real state of the contending parties, suffered the 
most dreadful anxiety. To get to his assistance was impos- 
sible ; both wind and current were against him. Fear for 
the event, in such circumstances, would naturally prepon- 
derate in the bravest mind ; and, at one o'clock, perceiving 

30 that, after three hours' endurance, the enemy's fire was 
unslackened, he began to despair of success. " I will make 
the signal of recall," said he to his captain, " for Nelson's 
sake. If he is in a condition to continue the action suc- 
cessfully, he will disregard it ; if he is not, it will be an 

35 excuse for his retreat, and no blame can be imputed to 
him." Captain Domett urged him at least to delay the 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 101 

signal till he could communicate with Nelson ; but, in Sir 
Hyde's opinion, the danger was too pressing for delay. 
" The fire," he said, " was too hot for Nelson to oppose; a 
retreat, he thought, must be made; he was aware of the con- 
sequences to his own personal reputation, but it would be 5 
cowardly in him to leave Nelson to bear the whole shame 
of the failure, if shame it should be deemed." Under a 
mistaken judgment, therefore, but with this disinterested 
and generous feeling, he made the signal for retreat. 

Nelson was at this time in all the excitement of action, lo 
pacing the quarter-dfeck. A shot through the mainmast 
knocked the splinters about; and he observed to one of his 
officers, with a smile, " It is warm work, and this day may 
be the last to any of us at a moment," and then stopping 
short at the gangway, added with emotion: "But, mark 15 
you! I would not be elsewhere for thousands." About this 
time the signal-lieutenant called out that No. 39 (the sig- 
nal for discontinuing the action) was thrown out by the 
commander-in-chief. He continued to walk the deck, and 
appeared to take no notice of it. The signal-officer met 20 
him at the next turn, and asked him if he should repeat it. 
" No," he replied; " acknowledge it." Presently he called 
after him to know if the signal for close action was still 
hoisted; and, being answered in the affirmative, said, 
" Mind you keep it so." He now paced the deck, moving 25 
the stump of his lost arm in a manner which always indi- 
cated great emotion. "Do you know," said he to Mr. 
Ferguson, "what is shown on board the commander-in- 
chief ? No. 39 ! " Mr. Ferguson asked what that meant. 
"Why, to leave off action !" Then, shrugging up his 30 
shoulders, he repeated the words : ' ' Leave off action ! 
You know, Foley," turning to the captain, " I have only 
one eye— I have a right to be blind sometimes ! "—and then 
putting the glass to his blind eye, in that mood of mind 
which sports with bitterness, he exclaimed: "I really do 35 
not see the signal ! " Presently he exclaimed : ' ' Keep mine 



102 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

for closer battle flying! That's the way I answer such sig- 
nals! Nail mine to the mast! " Admiral Graves, who was 
so situated that he could not discern what was done on 
board the Elejjhant, disobej^ed Sir Hyde's signal in like 
5 manner; whetlier by a fortunate mistake, or by a like 
brave intention, lias not been made known. 

The action continued along the line with unabated vigor 
on our side, and with tlie most determined resolution on 
the part of the Danes. They fought to great advantage, 

lo because most of the vessels in their line of defense were 
without masts; the few which had any standing had their 
topmasts struck, and the hulls could only be seen at 
intervals'. 

The prince-royal had taken his station upon one of the 

15 batteries, from whence he beheld the action, and issued his 
orders. Denmark had ne^er been engaged in so arduous a 
contest, and never did the Danes more nobly display their 
national courage — a courage not more unhappily, than 
impoliticly, exerted in subserviency to the interests of 

20 France. A youth of seventeen, by name Villemoes, partic- 
ularly distinguished himself on this memorable day. He 
had volunteered to take the command of a floating bat- 
tery, which was a raft, consisting merely of a number of 
beams nailed together, with a flooring to support the guns; 

25 it was square, with a breastwork full of port-holes, and 
without masts, carrying 24 guns and 120 men. With this 
he got under the stern of the Elephant, below the reach of 
the stern-chasers, and, under a heavy fire of small arms 
from the marines, fought his raft, till the truce was 

30 announced, with such skill as well as courage, as to 
excite Nelson's warmest admiration. 

Between one and two the fire of the Danes slackened; 



1* Prince-royal. The eldest son of the king of Denmark. 
28 Stern-chasers. The guns in the stern of a vessel used when pursued by 
an enemy. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 103 

about two it ceased from the greater part of their line, and 
some of their lighter ships were adrift. It was, however, 
difficult to take possession of those which struck, because 
the batteries on Amak Island protected tliem ; and because 
an irregular fire was kept up from the ships themselves as 5 
the boats approached. This arose from the nature of the 
action; the crews were continually reinforced from the 
shore; and fresh men coming on board did not inquire 
whether the flag had been struck, or, perhaps, did not lieed 
it; — many, or most of them, never having been engaged in lo 
war before — knowing nothing, therefore, of its laws, and 
thinking only of defending their country to the last ex- 
tremity. The Dannebrog fired upon the Elephant's boats 
in this manner, though her commodore had removed her 
pendant and deserted her, though she had struck, and 15 
though she was in flames. After she had been abandoned 
by the commodore, Braun fought her till he lost his right 
hand, and then Captain Lemming took the command. This 
unexpected renewal of her fire made the Elephant and 
Glatton renew theirs, till she was not only silenced, but 2c 
nearly every man in the praams ahead and astern of her 
was killed. When the smoke of their guns died away, she 
was seen drifting in flames before the wind, those of her 
crew who remained alive, and able to exert themselves, 
throwing themselves out at her port-holes. 25 

By half-past two the action had ceased along that part 
of the line which was astern of the Elephant, but not with 
the ships ahead and the Crown Batteries. Nelson, seeing 
the manner in which his boats were fired upon, when they 
went to take possession of the prizes, became angry, and 3c 
said he must either send on shore to have this irregular 
proceeding stopped, or send a fire-ship and burn them. 
Half the shot from the Ti-ekroner and from the batteries at 
Amak at this time struck the surrendei'ed ships, four of 

21 Praams. Large flat open boats. 



104 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

which had got close together; and the fire of the Enghsh, 
in return, was equally, or even more, destructive to these 
poor devoted Danes. Nelson, who was as humane as he 
was brave, was shocked at this massacre, — for such he called 
5 it, — and, with a presence of mind peculiar to himself, and 
never more signally displayed than now, he retired into the 
stern galley, and wrote thus to the crown-prince: " Vice 
Admiral Lord Nelson has been commanded to spare Den- 
mark, when she no longer resists. The line of defense 

lo which covered her shores has struck to the British flag; but 
if the firing is continued on the part of Denmark, he must 
set on fire all the prizes that lie has taken, without hav- 
ing the power of saving the men who have so nobly de- 
fended them. The brave Danes are the brothers, and should 

15 never be the enemies, of the English.'" A wafer was 
given him, but he ordered a candle to be brought from 
the cockpit, and sealed the letter with wax, aflixing a 
larger seal than he ordinarily used, " This," said he, " is 
no time to appear hurried and informal." Captain Sir 

20 Frederick Thesiger, who acted as his aid-de-camp, carried 
this letter with a flag of truce. Meantime the fire of the 
ships ahead, and the approach of the RamilUes and De- 
fence, from Sir Hyde's division, which had now worked 
near enough to alarm the enemy, though not to injure 

25 them, silenced the remainder of the Danish line to the 
eastward of the Trekroner. That battery, however, con- 
tinued its fire. This formidable work, owing to the want 
of the ships which had been destined to attack it, was com- 
paratively uninjured; toward the close of the action it had 

30 been manned with nearly fifteen hundred men, and the 
intention of storming it, for which every preparation had 
been made, was abandoned as impracticable. 

During Thesiger's absence. Nelson sent for Freemantle 
from the Ganges, and consulted with him and Foley, 

35 whetlier it was advisable to advance, with those ships 
which had sustained least damage, against the yet unin- 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 105 

jured part of the Danish line. They were decidedly of 
opinion that the best thing which could be done was, while 
tlie wind continued fair, to remove the fleet out of the in- 
tricate channel from which it had to retreat. In somewhat 
more than half an hour after Thesiger had been dispatched, 5 
the Danish adjutant-general Lindbolm came bearing a flag 
of truce : upon which the Trekroner ceased to fire, and the 
action closed after four hours' continuance. He brought 
an inquiry from the prince, What was the object of Nel- 
son's note? The British admiral wrote in reply: " Lord lo 
Nelson's object in sending a flag of truce was humanity ; he 
therefore consents that hostilities shall cease, and that the 
wounded Danes may be taken on shore. And Lord Nelson 
will take his prisoners out of the vessels, and burn or carry 
off his prizes as he shall tbink fit. Lord Nelson, with hum- 15 
ble duty to his royal highness the prince, will consider this 
the greatest victory he has ever gained, if it may be the 
cause of a happy reconciliation and union between his own 
most gracious sovereign and his majesty the King of Den- 
mark." Sir Frederick Thesiger was dispatched a second 20 
time with the reply ; and the Danish adjutant-general was 
referred to the commander-in-chief for a conference upon 
this overture. Lindholm, assenting to this, proceeded to 
the London, which was riding at anchor full four miles 
off; and Nelson, losing not one of the critical moments 25 
which he had thus gained, made signal for his leading 
ships to weigh in succession: — they had the shoal to clear, 
they were much crippled, and their course was immediately 
under the guns of the Trekroner. 

Tlie Monarch led the way. This ship had received six- 30 
and-twenty shot between wind and water. She had not a 
shroud standing; there was a double-headed shot in the 
heart of her foremast, and the slightest wind would have 
sent every mast over her side. The imminent danger from 
which Nelson had extricated himself soon became apparent; 35 
the Monarch touched immediately upon a shoal, over 



106 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

which she was pushed by the Ganges taking her amid- 
ships ; the Glatton went clear ; but the otlier two, the Defi- 
ance and the Elephant, grounded about a mile from the 
Trekroner, and there remained fixed, for many hours, in 
5 spite of all the exertions of their wearied crews. The 
Desiree frigate also, at the other end of the line, having gone 
toward the close of the action to assist the Bellona, became 
fast on the same shoal. Nelson left the Elephant, soon after 
she took the ground, to follow Lindholm. "Well," said 

ID he, as he left the Elephant, "I have fought contrary to 
orders, and I shall perhaps be hanged! Never mind, let 
them ! " 

His services had been too eminent on that day, his judg- 
ment too conspicuous, his success too signal, for any com- 

15 mander, however jealous of his own authority, or envious 
of another's merits, to express anything but satisfaction 
and gratitude, which Sir Hyde heartily felt and sincerely 
expressed. It was speedily agreed that there should be a 
suspension of hostilities for four-and-twenty hours; that 

20 all the prizes should be surrendered, and the wounded 
Danes carried on shore. There was a pressing necessity for 
this; for the Danes, either from too much confidence in the 
strength of their positions, and the difficulty of the channel ; 
or, supposing that the wounded might be carried on shore 

25 during the action, which was found totally impracticable; 
or, perhaps, from the confusion which the attack excited, 
had provided no surgeons; so that, when our men boarded 
the captured ships, they found many of the mangled and 
mutilated Danes bleeding to death for want of proper assist- 

30 ance ; a scene, of all others, the most shocking to a brave 
man's feelings. 

This was, indeed, a mournful day for Copenhagen ! It 
was Good Friday; but the general agitation, and the 
mourning which was in every house, made all distinction 

35 of days be forgotten. There were, at that hour, thousands 
in that city who felt, and more, perhaps, who "needed, the 



TEE LIFE OF NELSON 107 

consolations of Christianity; but few or none who could 
be calm enough to think of its observances. The English 
were actively employed in refitting their own ships, 
securing the prizes, and distributing the prisoners; the 
Danes, in carrying on shore and disposing of the wounded 5 
and the dead. It had been a murderous action. Our 
loss in killed and wounded was 953. The loss of the 
Danes, including prisoners, amounted to about 6000. 
The negotiations, meantime, went on; and it was agreed 
that Nelson should have an interview with the prince lo 
the following day. Hardy and Freemantle landed with 
him. This was a thing as unexampled as the other cir- 
cumstances of the battle. A strong guard was appointed 
to escort him to the palace, as much for the purpose of 
security as of honor. The populace, according the Brit- 15 
ish account, showed a mixture of admiration, curiosity, and 
displeasure, at beholding that man in the midst of them 
who had inflicted such wounds upon Denmark. But there 
were neither acclamations nor murmurs. "The people," 
says a Dane, " did not degrade themselves with the former, 20 
nor disgrace themselves with the latter: the admiral was 
received as one brave enemy ever ought to receive another 
— he was received with respect." The preliminaries of the 
negotiations were adjusted at this interview. During the 
repast which followed, Nelson, with all the sincerity 25 
of his character, bore willing testimony to the valor of 
his foes. He told the prince that he had been in 105 en- 
gagements, but that this was the most tremendous of all. 
" The French," he said, "fought bravelj^; but they could 
not have stood for one hour the fight which the Danes had 30 
supported for four." He requested that Villemoes might 
be introduced to him; and, shaking hands with the youth, 
told the prince that he ought to be made an admiral. The 
prince replied: "If, raj lord, I am to make all my brave 
officers admirals, I should have no captains or lieutenants 35 
in my service." v 



108 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

On the 9th Nelson landed again, to conclude the terms 
of the armistice. A difficulty arose respecting the dura- 
tion of it, and, as the connnissioners could not agree upon 
this head, they broke up, leaving Nelson to settle it with 
5 the prince. After dinner he was closeted with the prince; 
and they agreed that the armistice should continue four- 
teen weeks, and that, at its termination, fourteen days' 
notice should be given before the recommencement of 
hostilities. 

lo For the battle of Copenhagen Nelson was raised to the 
rank of viscount; an inadequate mark of reward for ser- 
vices so splendid, and of such paramount importance to 
the dearest interests of England. There was, however, 
some prudence in dealing out honors to him step by step. 

15 Had he lived long enough he would have fought his way 
up to a dukedom. 



CHAPTER VIII 

When Nelson informed Earl St. Vincent that the armis- 
tice had been concluded, he told him also, without reserve, 
his own discontent at the dilatoriness and indecision which 

20 he had witnessed and could not remedy. " No man," said 
he, ' ' but those who are on the Spot, can tell what I have 
gone through and do suffer. I make no scruple in saying 
that I would have been at Revel fourteen days ago ! that, 
without this armistice, the fleet would never have gone 

25 but by order of the admiralty; and with it, I dare say, we 
shall not go this week. I wanted Sir Hyde to let me, at 
least, go and cruise off Carlscrona, to prevent the Revel 
ships from getting in. I said I would not go to Revel to 
take any of those laurels which I was sure he would reap 

30 there. Think for me, my dear lord, and if I have deserved 
well, let me return; if ill, for Heaven's sake, supersede me, 
— for I cannot exist in this state." 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 109 

Fatigue, incessant anxiety, and a climate little suited to 
one of a tender constitution, which had now for many- 
years been accustomed to more genial latitudes, made him, 
at this time, seriously determine upon returning home. 
" If the northern business were not settled," he said, "they 5 
must send more admirals; for the keen air of the north 
liad cut him to the heart." He felt the want of activity 
and decision in the commander-in-chief more keenly, and 
this affected his spirits, and consequently his health, more 
than the inclemency of the Baltic. Soon after the armis- lo 
tice was signed Sir Hyde proceeded to the eastward, with 
such ships as were fit for service, leaving Nelson to follow 
with the rest as soon as those which had received slight 
damages should be repaired and the rest sent to England. 
In passing between the isles of Amak and Saltholm, most 15 
of the ships touched the ground, and some of them stuck 
fast for a while; no serious injury, however, was sus- 
tained. It was intended to act against the Russians first, 
before the breaking up of the frost should enable them to 
leave Revel; but, learning on the way that the Swedes 20 
had put to sea to effect a junction with them, Sir Hyde 
altered his course in hopes of intercepting this part of the 
enemy's force. Nelson had, at this time, provided for the 
more pressing emergencies of the service, and prepared, on 
the 18th, to follow the fleet. The St. George drew too 25 
much water to pass the channel between the isles without 
being lightened; the guns were therefore taken out and 
put on board an American vessel. A contrary wind, how- 
ever, prevented Nelson from moving; and on that same 
evening, while he was thus delayed, information reached 30 
him of the relative situation of the Swedish and British 
fleets, and the probability of an action. The fleet was 
nearly ten leagues distant, and both wind and current 
contrary; but it was not possible that Nelson could wait 
for a favorable season under such an expectation. He 35 
ordered his boat immediately and stepped into it. Night 



110 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

was setting- in, — one of tlie cold spring- nights of the north, 
— and it was discovered, soon after they had left the ship, 
that in their haste they had forgotten to provide him with 
a boat-cloak. He, however, forbade them to return for 
5 one; and when one of his companions offered his own 
great-coat and urged him to make use of it, he replied, " I 
thank you very much, but, to tell you the truth, my 
anxiety keeps me sufficiently warm at present." 

" Do you think," he said presently, "that our fleet lias 

lo quitted Bornholm ? If it has, we must follow it to Carls- 
crona." About midnight he reached it, and once more got 
on board the Elephant. On the following morning the 
Swedes were discovered. As soon, however, as they per- 
ceived the English approaching they retired, and took 

15 shelter in Carlscrona, behind the batteries on the island at 
the entrance of that port. Sir Hyde sent in a flag of truce, 
stating that Denmark had concluded an armistice, and 
requiring an explicit declaration from the court of Sweden 
whether it would adhere to, or abandon, the hostile meas- 

20 ures which it had taken against the rights and interests of 
Great Britain. The commander. Vice Admiral Cronstadt, 
replied, "That he could not answer a question which did 
not come within the particular circle of his duty, but that 
the king was then at Maloe, and would soon be at Carls- 

25 crona." Gustavus shortly afterward arrived, and an 
answer was then returned to this effect: " That his Swed- 
ish majesty would not for a moment fail to fulfill, with 
fidelity and sincerity, the engagements he had entered into 
with his allies; but he would not refuse to listen to equita- 

30 ble proposals made by deputies furnished wnth proper 
authority by the king of Great Britain to the united 
northern powers." Satisfied with this answer, and with 
the known disposition of the Swedish court. Sir Hyde 
sailed for the Gulf of Finland ; but he had not proceeded 

35 far before a dispatch boat from the Russian ambassador 
at Copenhagen arrived, bringing intelligence of the 



THE LIFE OF NELSON HI 

death of the Emperor Paul ; and that his successor, Alex- 
ander, had accepted the offer made by England to his 
father, of terminating the dispute by a convention. 

Sir Hyde believed that the death of Paul had effected all 
that was necessary; but Nelson never trusted anything 5 
to the uncertain events of time which could possibly be 
secured by promptitude or resolution. It w^as not, there- 
fore, without severe mortification that he saw the com- 
mander-in-chief return to the coast of Zealand and anchor 
in Kioge Bay, there to wait patiently for what might lo 
happen. 

There the fleet remained till dispatches arrived from 
home, on the 5th of May, recalling Sir Hyde and appoint- 
ing Nelson commander-in-chief. 

Not a moment was now lost. His first signal, as com- 15 
mander-in-chief, was to hoist in all launches and prepare 
to weigh ; and on the 7th he sailed from Kioge. Part of 
his fleet was left at Born holm to watch the Swedes; from 
whom he required and obtained an assurance that the 
British trade in the Cattegat and in the Baltic should not 20 
be molested: and saying how unpleasant it would be to 
him if anytlung should happen which might, for a mo- 
ment, disturb the returnmg harmony between Sweden and 
Great Britain. He apprised them that he w^as not directed 
to abstain from hostilities should he meet with the Sw^ed- 25 
ish fleet at sea. Meantime, he himself, with ten sail of the 
line, two frigates, a brig, and a schooner, made for the 
Gulf of Finland. Paul, in one of the freaks of his 
tyranny, had seized upon all the British effects in Russia, 
and even considered British subjects as his prisoners. " I 30 
will have all the British shipping and property restored," 
said Nelson, "but I will do nothing violently — neither 
commit the affairs of my country, nor suffer Russia to mix 
the affairs of Denmark or Sweden with the detention of 
our ships." The wind was fair, and carried him in four 35 
days to Revel Roads. But the bay had been clear of firm 



112 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ice on the 29th of April, while the Enghsh were lying idly 
at Kioge. The Russians had cut through the ice in the 
mole six feet thick, and their wliole squadron had sailed 
for Cronstadt on the 3d. Before that time it had lain at 
5 the mercy of the English. " Nothing," Nelson said, " if it 
had been right to make the attack, could have saved one 
ship of them in two hours after our entering the bay." 

It so happened that there was no cause to regret the 
opportunity which had been lost, and Nelson immediately 

lo put the intentions of Russia to the proof. He sent on shore 
to say that he came with friendly views, and was ready to 
return a salute. On their part the salute was delayed, till 
a message was sent to them to inquire for what reason: 
and the officer whose neglect had occasioned the delay 

15 was put under arrest. Nelson wrote to the emperor, pro- 
posing to wait on him personally, and congratulate him 
on his accession, and urged the immediate release of 
British subjects and restoration of British property. 
The answer arrived on the 16th : Nelson, meantime, had 

20 exchanged visits with the governor, and the most friendly 
intercourse had subsisted between the ships and the shore. 
Alexander's ministers, in their reply, expressed their sur- 
prise at the arrival of a British fleet in a Russian port, and 
their wish that it should return: they professed, on the 

25 part of Russia, the most friendly disposition toward Great 
Britain, but declined the personal visit of Lord Nelson, 
unless he came in a single ship. There was a suspicion 
implied in this which stung Nelson: and he said the Rus- 
sian ministers would never have written thus if their fleet 

30 had been at Revel. He wrote an immediate reply, express- 
ing what he felt; he told the court of Petersburg, "that 
the word of a Bricish admiral, when given in explanation 
of any part of his conduct, was as sacred as that of any 
sovereign in Europe." And he repeated, "that, under 

35 other circumstances, it would have been his anxious wish 
to have paid his personal respects to the emperor, and 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 113 

signed with his own hand the act of amity between the two 
countries." Having dispatched this, he stood out to sea 
immediately, leaving a brig to bring off the provisions 
which had been contracted for, and to settle the accounts. 
" I liope all IS right," said he, writing to our ambassador at 5 
Berlin; "but seamen are but bad negotiators; for we put 
to issue m five minutes what diplomatic forms would be 
five months doing." 

On his way down the Baltic, however, he met the Rus- 
sian Admiral Tchitchagof, whom the emperor, in reply to lo 
Sir Hyde's overtures, had sent to communicate personally 
with the British commander-in-chief. The reply was such 
as had been wished and expected: and these negotiators 
going, seaman-like, straight to their object, satisfied each 
other of the friendly intentions of their respective govern- 15 
ments. Nelson then anchored off Rostock; and there he 
received an answer to his last dispatch from Revel, in 
which the Russian court expressed their regret that there 
should have been any misconception between them, 
informed him that the British vessels which Paul had 20 
detained were ordered to be liberated, and invited him to 
Petersburg in whatever mode might be most agreeable to 
himself. Other honors awaited him : the Duke of Mecklen- 
burg-Strelitz, the queen's brother, came to visit him on 
board his ship; and towns of the inland parts of Mecklen- 25 
burg sent deputations, with their public books of record, 
that tliey might have the name of Nelson in them written 
by his own hand. 

From Rostock the fleet returned to Kioge Bay. Nelson 
saw that the temper of the Danes toward England was 30 
such as naturally arose from the chastisement which they 
had so recently received. "In this nation," said he, " we 
shall not be forgiven for having the upper hand of them : 



24 The queen's brother. A brother of Charlotte, the queen of George III. 
of England. 



114 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



I 



T only thank God we have, or they would try to humble us 
to the dust." 

Nelson was not deceived in his judgment of the Danish 
cabinet, but the battle of Copenhagen had crippled its 
5 power. The death of the Czar Paul had broken the con- 
federacy, and that cabinet, therefore, was compelled to 
defer, till a more convenient season, the indulgence of its 
enmity toward Great Britain. Soon afterward Admiral 
Sir Charles Maurice Pole arrived to take the command. 

loThe business, military and political, had by that time been 
so far completed that the presence of the British fleet soon 
became no longer necessary. When Nelson left the fleet 
this speedy termination of the expedition, though confi- 
dently expected, was not certain, and he, in his unwilling- 

isnessto weaken the British force, thought at one time of 
traversing Jutland in his boat by the canal, to Tonningen 
on the Eyder, and finding his way home from thence. 
This intention was not executed, but he returned in a brig, 
declining to accept a frigate, which few admirals would 

20 have done, especially if, like him, they suffered from sea- 
sickness in a small vessel. On his arrival at Yarmouth he 
was presently surrounded by the populace, and the military 
were drawn up in the market-place ready to receive him, 
but, making his way through the dust and the crowd and 

25 the clamor, he went straight to the hospital to see the men 
who had been wounded in the late battle— that victory 
which had added new glory to the name of Nelson, and 
which was of more importance even than the battle of the 
Nile to the honor, the strength, and security of England. 

30 He stopped at every bed, and had something kind and 
cheering to say to every man. Coming to a bed on which 
a sailor was lying, whose right arm had been taken off 
close to the shoulder- joint, he said to him: "Well, Jack, 



20 Seasickness. It is a curious fact that Nelson was almost always seasick 
at the beginning of a voyage. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 115 

what's the matter?" "Lost my right arm, your honor," 
was his reply. Nelson paused, looked down at his own 
empty sleeve, then at the sailor, and said playfully: 
"Well, Jack, then you and I are spoiled for fishermen. 
Cheer up, my brave fellow ! " and he passed briskly on to 5 
the next bed. " But these few words, "says Dr. Good, then 
a youth, who was attending" that hospital, and went round 
the wai'ds with him— " these few words had a magical effect 
upon the poor fellow: I saw his eyes sparkle with delight 
as Nelson turned away and pursued his course." lo 

He had not been many weeks on shore before he was 
called upon to undertake a service for which no Nelson was 
required. Bonaparte, who was now first consul, and in 
reality sole ruler of France, was making preparations upon 
a great scale for invading England, but his schemes in the 15 
Baltic had been baffled ; fleets could not be created as they 
were wanted, and his armies, therefore, were to come over 
in gunboats, and such small craft as could be rapidly built 
or collected for the occasion. A general alarm was excited, 
and, in condescension to this unworthy feeling, Nelson was 20 
appointed to a command extending from Orfordness to 
Beachy Head, on both shores— a sort of service, he said, 
for which he felt no other ability than what might be found 
in his zeal. 

To this service, however, such as it was, he applied with 25 
his wonted alacrity; and having hoisted his flag in the 
Medusa frigate, went to reconnoiter Boulogne, the point 
from which it was supposed the great attempt would be 
made, and which the French, in fear of an attack them- 
selves, were fortifying witli all care. He approached near 30 
enough to sink two of their floating batteries, and destroy a 
few gunboats which were without the pier; what damage 
was done within could not be ascertained. "Boulogne," 
he said, " was certainly not a very pleasant 'place that 
morning, but," he added, " it is not my wish to injure the 35 
poor inhabitants; and the town is spared as much as the 



1 16 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

nature of the service will admit." Enough was done to 
show the enemy that they could not, with im])unity, come 
outside their own ports. Nelson was satisfied, by what he 
saw, that they meant to make an attempt from this place, 
5 but that it was impracticable, for the least wind at W, N. 
W., and they were lost. The ports of Flushing and Flan- 
ders were better points; there we could not tell by our ej^es 
what means of transport were provided. From thence, 
therefore, if it came forth at all, the expedition would 

10 come: "And what a forlorn undertaking!" said he, 
" consider cross tides, etc. As for rowing, that is impossi- 
ble. It is perfectly right to be prepared for a mad govern- 
ment: but with the active force which has been given me, 
I may pronounce it almost impracticable." 

15 That force had been got together with an alacrity which 
has seldom been equaled. On the 28tli of July we w^ere, 
in Nelson's own words, literally at the foundation of our 
fabric of defense, and twelve days afterward we were so 
prepared on the enemy's coast that he did not believe they 

20 could get three miles from their ports. The Medusa, 
returning to our own shores, anchored in the rolling ground 
off Harwich, and wlien Nelson wished to get to the Norein 
her, the wind rendered it impossible to proceed there by the 
usual channel. In haste to be at the Nore, remembering 

25 that he had been a tolerable pilot for the mouth of the 
Thames in his younger days, and thinking it necessary 
that he should know all that could be known of the navi- 
gation, he requested the maritime surveyor of the coast, 
Mr. Spence, to get him into the Swin by any channel, for 

30 neither the pilots whom he had on board, nor the Harwich 
ones, would take charge of the ship. No vessel drawing 
more than fourteen feet had ever before ventured over the 
Naze. Mr. Spence, however, who had surveyed the chan- 

21 Rolling ground. A place where a heavy ground swell is always running. 
33 Naze. A promonlory south of Harwich ; tlie sandbank stretching out 
from the promontory is meant here. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 117 

nel, carried her safely through. The channel has since 
been called Nelson's, though he himself wished it to be 
named after the Medusa: his name needed no new 
memorial. 

Nelson's eye was upon Flushing. " To take possession of 5 
that place," he said, " would be a week's expedition for four 
or five thousand troops." This, however, required a consul- 
tation with the Admiralty, and that something might be 
done meantime, he resolved upon attacking the flotilla in 
the mouth of Boulogne harbor. This resolution was made 10 
in deference to the opinion of others, and to the public 
feeling which was so preposterously excited. He himseif 
scrupled not to assert that the French army would never 
embark at Boulogne for the invasion of England, and he 
owned that this boat- warfare was not congenial to his feel- 15 
ings. Into Helvoet or Flushing he should be happy to 
lead, if government turned their thoughts that way. 
" While I serve," said he, " I will do it actively, and to the 
very best of my abilities. I require nursing like a child," 
he added; " my mind carries me beyond my strength, and 20 
will do me up: but such is my nature." 

The attack was made by the boats of the squadron in five 
divisions, under Captains Somerville, Parker, Cotgrave, 
Jones, and Conn. The previous essay had taught the 
French the weak parts of their position, and they omitted 25 
no means of strengthening it, and of guarding against the 
expected attempt. The boats put off about half an hour 
before midnight, but, owing to the darkness, and tide and 
half-tide, which must always make night attacks so uncer- 
tain on the coasts of the Channel, the divisions separated. 30 
One could not arrive at all ; another not till near daybreak. 
The others made their attack gallantly; but the enemy 
were fully prepared: every vessel was defended by long 



28 Tide and half-tide. A condition of the tide when high tide is three 
•hours later at gea tlian it is near the shore. It causes bafflicg currents. 



118 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

poles, headed with iron spikes, projecting from their sides: 
strong nettings were braced up to their lower yards ; they 
were moored by the bottom to the shore, and chained one 
to another ; they were strongly manned with soldiers, and 
5 protected by land-batteries, and the shore was lined with 
troops. Many were taken possession of, and, though they 
could not have been brought out, would have been burned, 
had not the French resorted to a mode of offense which 
they have often used, but which no other people have ever 

lo been wicked enough to employ. The moment the firing 
ceased on board one of their own vessels, they fired upon it 
from the shore, perfectly regardless of their own men. 

In his private letters to the Admiralty, Nelson affirmed 
that had our force arrived as he intended, it was not all the 

15 chains in France which could have prevented our men from 
bringing off the whole of the vessels. There had been nor 
error committed, and never did Englishmen display more 
courage. Upon this point Nelson was fully satisfied ; but 
he said he should never bring himself again to allow any 

20 attack wherein he was not personally concerned, and that 
his mind suffered more than if he had had a leg shot off in 
the affair. He grieved particularly for Captain Parker, an 
excellent officer, to whom he was greatly attached, and who 
had an aged father looking to him for assistance. His 

25 thigh was shattered in the action, and the wound proved 
mortal, after some weeks of suffering and manly resigna- 
tion. During this interval. Nelson's anxiety was very 
great. '' Dear Parker is my child," said he, " for I found 
him in distress." And when he received the tidings of his 

30 death, he replied: "You will judge of my feelings: God's 
will be done. I beg that his hair may be cut off and given 
me; it shall be buried in my grave. Poor Mr. Parker! 
what a son'has he lost! If I were to say I was content, I 
should lie; but I shall endeavor to submit with all the for- 

35 titude in my power. His loss has made a wound in my 
heart which time will hardly heal." 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 119 

He now wished to be relieved from this service. The 
country, he said, had attached a confidence to his name 
wliich he had submitted to, and therefore had cheerfully 
repaired to the station; but this boat business, though it 
might be part of a great plan of invasion, could never be 5 
the only one, and he did not think it was a command for a 
vice admiral. Just at this time the peace of Amiens was 
signed. Nelson rejoiced that the experiment was made, 
but was well aware that it was an experiment: he saw 
what he called the misery of peace, unless the utmost vigi- lo 
lance and prudence were exerted; and he expressed, in 
bitter terms, his proper indignation at the manner in which 
the mob of London welcomed the French, general who 
brought the ratification; saying, "that they made him 
ashamed of his country." 15 

He had purchased a house and estate at Merton, in 
Surrey, meaning to pass his days there, in the society of 
Sir William and Lady Hamilton. This place he had never 
seen, till he was now welcomed there by the friends to 
whom he had so passionately devoted himself, and who 20 
were not less sincerely attached to him. 

Soon after the conclusion of peace, tidings arrived of our 
final and decisive successes in Egypt: in consequence of 
which the common council voted their thanks to the army 
and navy for bringing the campaign to so glorious a con- 25 
elusion. When Nelson, after the action of Cape St. Vin- 
cent, had been entertained at a city feast, he had observed 
to the lord mayor, " That, if the city continued its gener- 
osity, the navy would ruin them in gifts." To which the 
lord mayor replied, putting his hand upon the admiral's 30 
shoulder, "Do you find victoi'ies, and we will find 
rewards." 

The happiness which Nelson enjoyed in the society of his 



■^ Peace of Amiens. March 27, 1802. This peace concluded the war be- 
tween France and England. England surrendered all important conquests. 



120 THE LIFE OF KELSON 

cliosen friends was of no long continuance. Sir William 
Hamilton, who was far advanced in years, died earlj^ in 
1803. He expired in his wife's arms, holding Nelson by 
the hand ; and almost in his last words left her to his pro- 
Stection. A few weeks after this event the war was 
renewed; and, the day after his majesty's message to 
parliament. Nelson departed to take the command of the 
Mediterranean fleet. 
He took his station immediately off Toulon, and there, 

lo with incessant vigilance, waited for the coming out of the 
enemy. When he had been fourteen months thus 
employed, he received a vote of thanks from the city of 
London, for his skill and perseverance in blockading that 
port, so as to prevent the French from putting to sea. Nel- 

15 son, in his answer to the lord mayor, said: " I beg to in- 
form your lordship that the port of Toulon has never been 
blockaded by me: quite the reverse. Every opportunity 
has been offered the enemy to put to sea ; for it is there 
that we hope to realize the hopes and expectations of our 

20 country." Nelson then remarked tliat the junior flag- 
officers of his fleet had been omitted in this vote of thanks; 
and his surprise at the omission was expressed with more 
asperity, perhaps, than an offense so entirely and mani- 
festly unintentional deserved; but it arose from that gener- 

25 ous regard for the feelings as well as interests of all who 

were under his command, which made him as mucli 

beloved in the fleets of Britain as he was dreaded in those 

of the enemy. 

Never was any commander more beloved. He governed 

30 men by their reason and their affections : they knew that 
he was incapable of caprice or tyranny; and they obeyed 
him with alacrity and joy, because he possessed their con- 
fidence as well as their love. "Our Nel," they used to 
say, " is as brave as a lion, and as gentle as a lamb." 

35 When Nelson took the command, it was expected that 
the Mediterranean would be an active scene. Nelson well 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 121 

understood the character of the perfidious Corsicau, who 
was uow sole tyrant of France; and knowing that he was 
as ready to attack his friends as his enemies, knew, there- 
fore, that nothing could be more uncertain than the dn-ec- 
tion'of the fleet from Toulon, whenever it should put to 5 
sea. "It had as many destinations," he said, "as there 
were countries." The momentous revolutions of the last 
ten years had given him ample matter for reflection, as well 
as opportunities for observation: the film was cleared from 
his eyes; and now, when the French no longer went lo 
abroad with the cry of liberty and equality, he saw that the 
oppression and misrule of the powers which had been 
opposed to them had been the main causes of their suc- 
cess, and that those causes would still prepare the way 
before them. Even in Sicily, where, if it had been possible 15 
longer to blind himself, Nelson would willingly have 
seen no evil, he perceived that the people wished for a 
change, and acknowledged that they had reason to wish 
for it. In Sardinia, the same burden of misgovernment 
was felt; and the people, like the Sicilians, were impover- 20 
ished by a government so utterly incompetent to perform 
its first and most essential duties, that it did not protect its 
own coasts from the Barbary pirates. He would fain have 
had us purchase this island (the finest in the Mediterranean) 
from its sovereign , who did not receive five thousand pounds 25 
a year from it, after its wretched establishment was paid. 
There was reason to think that France was preparing to 
possess her.^elf of this important point, which afforded our 
fleet facilities for watching Toulon not to be obtained else- 
where. An expedition was preparing at Corsica for the 30 
purpose; and all the Sardes, who had taken part with 

> The perfidious Corsican. Napoleon was born in Corsica. 
••^3 Barbary pirates. Until 1816 the Mediterranean was infested with 
j)irates from the Barbary coast, the northern coast of Africa. 
26 Establishment. Government officials, police, and military forces. 
31 Sardes. Sardinians. 



122 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

revolutionary France, were ordered to assemble there. It 
was certain that if the attack were made it would succeed. 
Nelson thought that the only means to prevent Sardinia 
from becoming French was to make it Enghsh, and that 
5 half-a-million would give the king a rich price, and Eng- 
land a cheap purchase. 

The proposed attack was postponed. Views of wider 
ambition were opening upon Bonaparte, who now almost 
undisgui^edly aspired to make himself master of the conti- 

lonent of Europe; and Austria was preparing for another 
struggle, to be conducted as weakly, and terminated as 
miserably, as the former. Spain, too, was once more to be 
involved in war by the policy of France; that perfidious 
government having in view the double object of employing 

15 the Spanish resources against England, and exhausting 
them, in order to render Spain herself finally its prey. 
Nelson, who knew that England and the Peninsula ought 
to be in alliance, for the common interest of both, fre- 
quently expressed his hopes that Spain might resume her 

20 natural rank among the nations. " We ought," he said, 
' ' by mutual consent, to be the very best friends, and both 
to be ever hostile to France." But he saw^ that Bonaparte 
was meditating the destruction of Spain ; and that, while 
the wretched court of Madrid professed to remain neutral, 

25 the appearances of neutrality were scarcely preserved. An 
order of the year 1771, excluding British ships of war from 
the Spanish ports, was revived, and put in force; while 
French privateers, from these very ports, annoyed the 
British trade, carried their prizes in, and sold them even at 

30 Barcelona. Nelson complained of this to the captain- 
general of Catalonia, informing him that he claimed for 
every British ship or squadron, the right of lying, as long 
as it pleased, in the ports of Spain, while that right was 
allowed to other powers. To the British ambassador he 

I'' Peninsula. Spain. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 123 

said: "I am read 3^ to make large allowances for the miser- 
able situation Spain has placed herself in ; but there is a 
certain line beyond which I cannot submit to be treated 
with disrespect. We have given up French vessels taken 
within gun-shot of the Spanish shore, and yet French 5 
vessels are permitted to attack our ships from the Spanish 
shore. Your excellency may assure tlie Spanish Govern- 
ment that in whatever place the Spaniards allow the 
French to attack us, in that place I shall order the French 
to be attacked." 10 

During this state of things, to which the weakness of 
Spain, and not her will, consented, the enemy's fleet did 
not venture to put to sea. Nelson watched it with unre- 
mitting and almost unexampled perseverance. The station 
off Toulon he called his home. "We are in the right 15 
fighting trim," said he; "let them come as soon as they 
please. I never saw a fleet altogether so well officered and 
manned : would to God the ships were half so good ! The 
finest ones in the service would soon be destroyed by such 
terrible weather. I know well enough that if I were to go 20 
into Malta I should save the ships during this bad season ; 
but if I am to watch the French, I must be at sea; and if 
at sea, must have bad weather : and if the ships are not 
fit to stand bad weather, they are useless." Then only he 
was satisfied, and at ease, when he had the enemy in 25 
view. Mr. Elliot, our minister at Naples, seems, at this 
time, to have proposed to send a confidential Frenchman to 
him with information. " I should be very happy," he re- 
plied, " to receive authentic intelligence of the destination 
of the French squadron, their route, and time of sailing. 30 
Anything short of this is useless; and I assure your excel- 
lency that I would not, upon any consideration, have 
a Frenchman in the fleet, except as a prisoner. I put no 
confidence in them. You think yours good; the queen 

34 The queen. Of Naples. 



124 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



thinks the same: I believe they are all alike. Whatever 
information you can get me, I shall be very thankful for; 
but not a Frenchman comes here. Forgive me, but my 
mother hated the French ! " 
5 M. Latouche Treville, who had commanded at Boulogne, 
commanded now at Toulon. "He was sent for on pur- 
pose," said Nelson, ''as he heat me at Boulogne, to beat me 
again; but he seems very loth to try." One day, while the 
main body of our fleet was out of sight of land, Rear- 

10 Admiral Campbell, reconnoitering with the Canopus, 
Donegal, and Amazon, stood in close to the port, and 
M. Latouche, taking advantage of a breeze which sprung 
up, pushed out, with four ships of the line and three heavy 
frigates, and chased him about four leagues. The French- 

15 man, delighted at having found himself in so novel a situa- 
tion, published a boastful account, affirming- that he had 
given chase to tlie wliole British fleet, and that Nelson had 
fled before him. Nelson thought it due to the Admiralty 
to send home a copy of the Victory'' s log upon this occa- 

20 sion. " As for himself," he said, " if his character was not 
established by that time for not being apt to run away, it 
was not worth his while to put the world right." " If this 
fleet gets fairly up with M. Latouche," said he to one of his 
correspondents, "his letter, with all his ingenuity, must 

25 be different to his last. We had fancied that we chased 
him into Toulon; for, blind as I am, I could see his water- 
line, when he clewed his topsails up, shutting in Sepet. But 



I 



4 My mother hated the French. Nelson meant to suggest that he in- 
herited his hatred of the national enemy from his mother. 

19 Log. The record of the ship's movements and of daily events of 
importance. 

26 Water-line. A horizontal line about a ship's hull at the surface of the 
water. 

27 Clewed his topsails up. Hauled the topsails up to the yards in preparation 
for furling them. 

-'' Shutting in Sepet. Obscuring the view of Sepet, a cape at the left of 
the entrance to the harbor of Toulon. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 125 

from the time of his meeting Captain Hawker in the Isis, 
I never heard anything of his acting otherwise than as a 
poltroon and a liar. Contempt is the best mode of treating 
such a miscreant." In spite, however, of contempt, the 
impudence of this Frenchman half angered him. He said 5 
to his brother: "You will have seen Latouche's letter; 
how he chased me and how I ran. I keep it; and if I take 
him he shall eat it." 

Nelson, who used to say that in sea affairs notliing is 
impossible, and nothing improbable, feared the more that lo 
this Frenchman might get out and elude his vigilance; 
because he was so especially desirous of catching him, and 
administering to him his own lying letter in a sandwich. 
M. Latouche, however, escaped him in another way. He 
died, according to the French papers, in consequence of 15 
walking so often up to the signal post upon Sepet, to watch 
the British fleet. " I always pronounced that would be his 
death," said Nelson. " If he had come out and fought me, 
it would, at least, have added ten years to my life." The 
patience with which he had watched Toulon he spoke of, 20 
truly, as a perseverance at sea which had never been sur- 
passed. From May, 1803, to August, 1805, he himself 
went out of his ship but three times; each of those times 
was upon the king's service, and neither time of absence 
exceeded an hour. The weather had been so unusually 25 
severe that he said the Mediterranean seemed altered. It 
was his rule never to contend with the gales; but either 
run to the seuthward, to escape their violence, or furl all 
the sails, and make the ships as easy as possible. The 
men, though he said flesh and blood could hardly stand it, 30 
continued in excellent health, which he ascribed, in great 
measure, to a plentiful supply of lemons and onions. For 

1 Isis. The French ship Hermione encouiitoiTd tlie Isis off Sandy Hook in 
1780, and after an action la-ting for an honr and twenty minntcs, the two ships 
separated. The log of the Zfzs reported that the P'rench ship was chased for 
three-quarters of an hour after the ckse of the actinn. 



126 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

himself, he thought he could only last till the battle was 
over. One battle more it was his hope tliat he might fight. 
'However," said he, "whatever happens, I have run a 
glorious race." He was afraid of blindness ; and this was 
5 the only evil which he could not contemplate without 
unhappiness. More alarming symptoms he regarded with 
less apprehension; describing his own "shattered carcass " 
as in the worst plight of any in the fleet ; and he says : "I 
have felt the blood gushing up the left side of my head, and 

lo the moment it covers the brain I am fast asleep." The fleet 
was in worse trim than the men; but when he compared it 
with the enemy's, it was with a right English feeling. 
"The French fleet, yesterday," said he in one of his let- 
ters, "was to appearance in high feather, and as fine as 

15 paint could make them; but when they may sail, or where 
they may go, I am very sorry to say is a secret I am not 
acquainted with. Our weather-beaten ships, I have no 
fear, will make their sides like a plum pudding." 

Hostilities at length commenced between Great Britain 

20 and Spain. That country, whose miserable government 
made her subservient to France, was once more destined to 
lavish her resources and her blood in furtherance of the 
designs of a perfidious ally. The immediate occasion of the 
war was the seizure of four treasure ships by the English. 

25 The act was perfectly justifiable, for those treasures were 
intended to furnish means for France; but the circum- 
stances which attended it were as unhappy as they were 
unforeseen. Four frigates had been dispatched to intercept 
them. They met with an equal force. Resistance, there- 

30 fore, became a point of honor on the part of the Spaniards, 
and one of their ships soon blew up with all on board. 
Had a stronger squadron been sent, this deplorable catas- 
troplie might have been spared — a catastrophe which 
excited not more indignation in Spain than it did grief in 

35 those wlio were its unwilling instruments, in the English 
Government and in the English people. On the 5th of 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 127 

October this unhappy affair occurred, and Nelson was not 
apprised of it till the 12th of the ensuing month. He had, 
indeed, sufficient mortification at the breaking out of the 
Spanish war; an event which, it might reasonably have 
been supposed, would amply enrich the officers of the S 
Mediterranean fleet, and repay them for the severe and 
unremitting duty on which they had been so long em- 
ployed. But of this harvest they were deprived; for Sir 
John Orde was sent with a small squadron, and a separate 
command, to Cadiz. Nelson's feelings were never wounded lo 
so deeply as now. "Iliad thought," said he, writing in 
the first flow and freshness of indignation; " I fancied — 
but, nay; it must have been a dream, an idle dream — yet, 
I confess it, 1 did fancy that I had done my country ser- 
vice; and thus they use me! And under what circum- is 
stances, and with what pointed aggravation! Yet, if I 
know my own thoughts, it is not for myself, or on my 
own account chiefly, that I feel the sting and the disap- 
pointment. No! it is for my brave officers; for my 
noble-minded friends and comrades. Such a gallant set 20 
of fellows! Such a band of brothers! My heart swells 
at the thought of them ! " 

War between Spain and England was now declared; 
and, on the 18th of January, the Toulon fleet, having the 
Spaniards to co-operate with them, put to sea. Nelson was 25 
at anchor off the coast of Sardinia, where the Madalena 
Islands form one of the finest harbors in the world, when, 
at three in the afternoon of the 19th, the Active and Sea- 
horse frigates brought this long-hoped-for intelligence. 
They had been close to the enemy at ten on the preceding 30 
night, but lost sight of them in about four hours. The 
fleet immediately unmoored and weighed, and at six in the 
evening ran through the strait between Biche and Sar- 
dinia; a passage so narrow that the ships could only pass 
one at a time, each following the stern-lights of its leader. 35 
From the position of the enemy, when they were last seen, 



128 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



it was inferred that they must be bound round the southern 
end of Sardinia. Signal was made the next morning to 
prepare for battle. Bad weather came on, baffling the one 
fleet in its object, and the other in its pursuit. Nelson beat 
5 about the Sicilian seas for ten days, without obtaining any 
other information of the enemy than that one of their 
ships had put into Ajaccio dismasted; and having seen 
that Sardinia, Naples, and Sicily were safe, believing Egypt 
to be their destination, for Egypt he ran. 

10 Baffled there, he bore up for Malta, and met intelligence 
from Naples that the French, having been dispersed in a 
gale, had put back to Toulon. From the same quarter he 
learned that a great number of saddles and muskets had 
been embarked ; and this confirmed him in his opinion that 

15 Egypt was their destination. That they should have put 
back in consequence of storms which he had weathered 
gave him a consoling sense of British superiority. " These 
gentlemen," said he, "are not accustomed to a Gulf of 
Lyons gale; we have buffeted them for one-and-twenty 

20 months, and not carried away a spar." He, however, who 
had so often braved these gales, was now, though not mas- 
tered by them, vexatiously thwarted and impeded ; and, on 
February 27, he was compelled to anchor in Pulla Bay, in 
the Gulf of Cagliari. From the 21st of January the fleet 

25 had remained ready for battle, without a bulkhead up, 
night or day. He anchored here that he might not be 
driven to leeward. As soon as the weather moderated he 
put to sea again, and, after again beating about against 
contrary winds, another gale drove him to anchor in the 

30 Gulf of Palma, on the 8tli of March. This he made his 
rendezvous; he knew that the French troops still remained 
embarked, and wishing to lead them into a belief that he 
was stationed upon the Spanish coast, he made his appear- 

25 Without a bulkhead up. In clearing a warship for action, the bulk- 
heads, or partitions, are taken down, so as to leave free access from one part of 
the ship to the other. i 



1 



TEE LIFE OF NELSON 129 

ance off Barcelona with that intent. About the end of the 
month he began to fear that the plan of the expedition was 
abandoned, and, sailing once more toward his old station off 
Toulon, on the 4th of April, he met the Phoebe, with news 
that Villeneuve had put to sea on the last of March with 5 
eleven ships of the line, seven frigates, and two brigs. When 
last seen they were steering toward the coast of Africa. 
Nelson first covered the channel between Sardinia and 
Barbary, so as to satisfy himself that Villeneuve was not 
taking the same route for Egypt which Gantheaume had 10 
taken before him, when he attempted to carry reinforce- 
ments there. Certain of this, he bore up on the 7th for 
Palermo, lest the French should pass to the north of Cor- 
sica, and he dispatched cruisers in all directions. On the 
11th he felt assured that they were not gone down the 15 
Mediterranean, and sending off frigates to Gibraltar, to 
Lisbon, and to Admiral Corn wall is, who commanded the 
squadron off Brest, he endeavored to get to the westward, 
beating against westerly winds. After five days, a neutral 
gave intelligence that the French had been seen off Cape 20 
de Gatte on the 7th. It was soon after ascertained that 
they had passed the Straits of Gibraltar on the day follow- 
ing; and Nelson, knowing that they might already be half- 
way to Ireland, or to Jamaica, exclaimed that he was 
miserable. One gleam of comfort only came across him in 25 
the reflection that his vigilance had rendered it impossible 
for them to undertake any expedition in the Mediterranean. 



5 Villeneuve. The French admiral who had succeeded to the command of 
the enemy's fleet, 

10 Gantheaume. The French admiral who conveyed Napoleon back to 
France. He afterward attempted to carry reinforcements to Egypt. 

19 Beating. In nautical language " beating " is sailing in the direction from 
which the wind blows. It is accomplished by steering a zigzag course, so that 
the wind blows slantingly first on one side of the sails, then on the other. 

20 Cape de Gatte. The southeastern point of Spain. 
24 Jamaica. An island in the West Indies 



130 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

Eight days after this certain intelligence had been 
obtained, he described his state of mind thus forcibly, in 
writing to the governor of Malta: " My good fortune, my 
dear Ball, seems flown away. I cannot get a fair wind, or 
5 even a side wind. Dead foul I Dead foul ! But jny mind 
is fully made up what to do when I leave the Straits, sup- 
posing there is no certain account of the enemy's destina- 
tion. I believe this ill-luck will go near to kill me; but as 
these are times for exertion, I must not be cast down, 

10 whatever I may feel." In spite of every exertion which 
could be made, by all the zeal and all the skill of British 
seamen, he did not get in sight of Gibraltar till the 30th of 
April ; and the wind was then so adverse that it was impos- 
sible to pass the Gut. He anchored in Mazari Bay, on the 

15 Barbary shore, obtained supplies from Tetuan, and when, 
on the 5th, a breeze from the eastward sprang up at last, 
sailed once more, hoping to hear of the enemy from Sir 
John Orde, who commanded off Cadiz, or from Lisbon. 
" If nothing is heard of them," said he to the Admiralty, 

20 " I shall probably think the rumors which have been spread 
are true; that their object is the West Indies; and, in that 
case, I think it my duty to follow them; or to the Antip- 
odes, should I believe that to be their destination." At 
the time when this resolution was taken the physician of 

25 the fleet had ordered him to return to England before the 
hot months. 

Nelson had formed his judgment of their destination, 
and made up his mind accordingly, when Donald Camp- 
bell, at that time an admiral in the Portuguese service — 

30 the same person who had given important tidings to Earl 
St. Vincent of the movements of that fleet from which he 
won his title — a second time gave timely and momentous 
intelligence to the flag of his country. He went on board 

5 Dead foul. A foul wind is a wind straight ahead. 

1* Gut. The main part of the channel between Spain and Africa. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 131 

the Victory^ and communicated to Nelson his certain 
knowledge that the combined Spanish and French fleets 
were bound for the West Indies. Hitherto all things 
had favored the enemy. While the British commander 
was beating up against strong southerly and westerly gales, 5 
they had wind to their wish from the N. E., and had done 
in nine days what he was a whole month in accomplishing. 
Villeneuve, finding the Spaniards at Carthagena were not 
in a state of equipment to join him, dared not wait, but 
hastened on to Cadiz. Sir John Orde necessarily retired at 10 
his approach. Admiral Gravina, with 6 Spanish ships of 
the line and 2 French, came out to him, and they sailed 
without a moment's loss of time. They had about 3000 
French troops on board, and 1500 Spanish ; 600 were under 
orders, expecting them at Martinique, and 1000 at Guada- 15 
loupe. General Lauriston commanded the troops. The 
combined fleet now consisted of 18 sail of the line, 6 forty- 
four-gun frigates, 1 of twenty -six guns, 3 corvettes, and a 
brig. They were joined afterward by 2 new French line- 
of- battle ships, and 1 forty -four. Nelson pursued them with 20 
10 sail of the line and 3 frigates. "Take you a French- 
man apiece," said he to his captains, "and leave me the 
Spaniards; when I haul down my colors I expect you to do 
the same; and not till then." 

The enemy had flve-and-thirty days' start; but he cal- 25 
culated that he should gain eight or ten days upon them 
by his exertions. May 15 he made Madeira, and on 
June 4 reached Barbadoes, whither he had sent dis- 
patches before him, and where he found Admiral Coch- 
rane, with two ships, part of our squadron in those seas 30 
being at Jamaica. He found here also accounts that the 
combined fleets had been seen from St. Lucia on the 28th, 
standing to the southward, and that Tobago and Trinidad 
were their objects. This Nelson doubted; but he was 

27 Made Madeira. Reached Madeira. 



132 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

alone in his opinion, and yielded it with these foreboding 
words: " If your intelligence proves false, you lose me the 
French fleet," Sir William Myers offered to embari^ here 
with two thousand troops. They were taken on board, 
5 and the next morning he sailed for Tobago. Here accident 
confirmed the false intelligence which had, whether from 
intention or error, misled him. A merchant of Tobago, in 
the general alarm, not knowing whether this fleet was friend 
or foe, sent out a schooner to reconnoiter and acquaint 

lo him by signal. The signal which he had chosen happened 
to be the very one which had been appointed by Colonel 
Shipley of the engineers to signify that the enemy were at 
Trinidad ; and as this was at the close of day, there was 
no opportunity of discovering the mistake. An American 

15 brig was met with about the same time, the master of 
which, with that propensity to deceive the English and 
assist the French in any manner, which has been but too 
common among his countrymen, afiirmed that he had 
been boarded off Granada a few days before by the French, 

20 who were standing toward the Bocas of Trinidad. This 
fresh intelligence removed all doubts. The ships were 
cleared for action before daylight, and Nelson entered the 
Bay of Paria on the 7th, hoping and expecting to make 
the mouths of the Orinoco as famous in the annals of the 

25 British navy as those of the Nile. Not an enemy was 
there ; and it was discovered that accident and artifice had 
combined to lead him so far to leeward that there could 
have been little hope of fetching to windward of Granada 
for any other fleet. Nelson, however, with skill and exer- 

sotions never exceeded, and almost unexampled, bore for 
that island. 

Advices met him on the way that the combined fleets, 

20 Bocas of Trinidad. Channels between Trinidad and the American 
continent. 

28 Fetching to windward. Sailing closely enough in the direction from 
which the wind was blowing to pass to the win^lward of Graaada. 



THE LIFE O'B NELSON 133 

having captured the Diamond Rock, were then at Mar- 
tinique on the 4th, and were expected to sail that night for 
the attack of Granada. On the 9th Nelson arrived off 
that island, and there learned that they had passed to lee- 
ward of Antigua the preceding day, and taken a home- 5 
ward bound convoy. Had it not been for false information, 
upon which Nelson had acted reluctantly and in opposition 
to his own judgment, he would have been off Port Royal 
just as they were leaving it, and the battle would have 
been fought on the spot where Rodney defeated De Grasse. lo 
This he remembered in his vexation ; but he had saved the 
colonies and above two hundred ships laden for Europe, 
which would else have fallen into the enemy's hands ; and 
he had the satisfaction of knowing that the mere terror of 
his name had effected this, and had put to flight the allied i5 
enemies, whose force nearly doubled that before which 
they fled. That they were flying back to Europe he 
beUeved, and for Europe he steered in pursuit on the 13th, 
having disembarked the troops at Antigua, and taking with 
him the Spartiate, seventy-four; the only addition to the 20 
squadron with which he was pursuing so superior a force. 
Five days afterward the Amazon brought intelligence 
that she had spoke a schooner who had seen them, on the 
evening of the 15th, steering to the north, and, by com- 
putation, eighty-seven leagues off. Nelson's diary at this 25 
time denotes his great anxiety and his perpetual and all- 
observing vigilance. " June 21, Midnight.— Nearly calm ; 
saw three planks which I think came from the French 
fleet. Very miserable, which is very foolish." On the 
17th of July he came in sight of Cape St. Vincent, and 30 
steered for Gibraltar. " July 18tb," his diary says, " Cape 
Spartel in sight, but no French fleet nor any information 
about them. How sorrowful this makes me! but I cannot 



1 Diamond Rock. A rocky i^lanrl off Mnrtinique. 
10 Rodney defeated De Grasse. April 12, 1782. 



134 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

help myself." Tlie next clay he anchored at Gibraltar, and 
on the 20th, says he, "I went on shore for the first time 
since June 16, 1803 ; and from having my foot out of the 
Victory, two years, wanting ten days." 
5 Here he communicated with his old friend CoUingwood, 
who, having been detached with a squadron, when the dis- 
appearance of the combined fleets, and with Nelson in 
their pursuit, was known in England, had taken his station 
off Cadiz. He thought that Ireland was the enemy's ulti- 

10 mate object; that they would now liberate the Ferrol 
squadron, which was blocked up by Sir Robert Calder, 
call for the Rochefort ships, and then appear off Ushant 
with three- or four-and-thirty sail ; there to be joined by 
the Brest fleet. With this great force he supposed they 

15 would make for Ireland — the real mark and bent of all 
their operations; and their flight to the West Indies, 
he thought, had been merely undertaken to take off Nel- 
son's force, which was the great impediment to their 
undertaking. 

20 Collingwood was gifted with great political penetration. 
As yet, however, all was conjecture concerning the enemy ; 
and Nelson, having victualed and watered at Tetuan, 
stood for Ceuta on the 24:th, still without information of 
their course. Next day intelligence arrived that the 

25 Curieux brig had seen them on the 19tli, standing to the 
northward. He proceeded off Cape St. Vincent, rather 
cruising for intelligence than knowing whither to betake 
himself; and here a case occurred that; more than any 
other event in real history, resembles those whimsical- 

30 proofs of sagacity which Voltaire, in his " Zadig," has 



23 Ceuta. On the north coast of Africa. 

30 Voltaire (1694 1778). One of the greatest of French satirists. Zadig, the 
hero of one of his satirical romances, was a sage of such sagacity that he was 
able to state from the hoof-marks of a horse that the animal in question was 
of a certain height ; that its tail was three and a half feet in length ; that its 
shoes were of silver, etc. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 135 

borrowed from the Orientals. One of our frigates spoke 
an American who, a little to the westward of the Azores, 
had fallen in with an armed vessel, appearing- to be a dis- 
masted privateer, deserted by her crew, which had been 
run on board by another ship, and had been set fire to; 5 
but the fire had gone out. A log-book and a few seaman's 
jackets were found in the cabin, and these were brought to 
Nelson. The log-book closed with these words: "Two 
large vessels in the W. N. W."; and this led him to con- 
clude that the vessel had been an English privateer cruis- lo 
ing off the Western Islands. But there was in this book 
a scrap of dirty paper filled with figures. Nelson, imme- 
diately upon seeing it, observed that the figures were 
written by a Frenchman, and after studying this for a 
while, said: "I can explain the whole. The jackets are 15 
of French manufacture, and prove that the privateer was 
in possession of the enemy. She had been chased and 
taken by the two ships that were seen in the W. N. W. 
The prize-master, going on board in a hurry, forgot to take 
with him his reckoning; there is none in the log-book, and 20 
the dirty paper contains her work for the number of days 
since the privateer last left Corvo, with an unaccounted- 
for run, which I take to have been the chase, in his 
endeavor to find out her situation by back-reckonings. By 
some mismanagement, I conclude, she was run on board 25 
of by one of the enemy's ships, and dismasted. Not liking 
delay (for I am satisfied that those two ships were the 
advanced ones of the French squadron), and fancying we 
were close at their heels, they set fire to the vessel and 

1 Spoke an America^. Approached sufficiently near to an American 
vessel to communicate with her by word of mouth. 
5 Run on board. Run into. 

19 Prize-master. The officer sent to take charge of a captured vessel. 

20 Reckoning. A ship's reckoning is the estimate of her position, made 
daily, by means of astronomical observations. 

22 Corvo. In the Azores. 



136 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

abandoned her in a hurry. If this explanation be correct, 
I infer from it that they are gone more to the northward, 
and more to the northward I will look for them." This 
course accordingly he held, but still without success. Still 
5 persevering, and still disappointed, he returned near 
enough to Cadiz to ascertain that they were not there, 
traversed the Bay of Biscay, and then, as a last hope, stood 
over for the northwest coast of Ireland, against adverse 
winds, till, on the evening of the 12th of August, he learned 

lo that they had not been heard of there. Frustrated thus 
in all his hopes, after a pursuit to which, for its extent, 
rapidity, and perseverence, no parallel can be produced, he 
judged it best to reinforce the Channel fleet with his squad- 
ron, lest the enemy, as CoUingwood apprehended, should 

15 bear down upon Brest with their whole collected force. 
On the 15th he joined Admiral Cornwallis off Ushant. 
No news had yet been obtained of the enemy, and on the 
same evening he received orders to proceed, with the 
Victory and Superb, to Portsmouth. 



CHAPTER IX 

20 At Portsmouth Nelson at length found news of the 
combined fleets. Sir Robert Calder, who had been sent out 
to intercept their return, had fallen in with them on the 
22d of July, sixty leagues west of Cape Finisterre. Their 
force consisted of 20 sail of the line, 3 fifty-gun ships, 5 

25 frigates, and 2 brigs; his, of 15 line-of-battle ships, 2 
frigates, a cutter, and a lugger. After an action of four 
hours he had captured an eighty-four jfnd a seventy-four, 
and then thought it necessary to bring-to the squadron for 
the purpose of securing their prizes. The hostile fleets 

30 remained in sight of each other till the 26th, when the 
enemy bore awaj". The capture of two ships from so 

16 yshant. Off the coast of Brittany. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 137 

superior a force would have been considered as no incon- 
siderable victory a few years earlier, but Nelson had intro- 
duced a new era in our naval history, and the nation felt, 
respecting this action, as he had felt on a somewhat similar 
occasion. They regretted that Nelson with his eleven ships 5 
had not been in Sir Robert Calder^s place, and their dis- 
appointment was generally and loudly expressed. 

Frustrated as his own hopes had been. Nelson had yet 
the high satisfaction of knowing that his judgment had 
never been more conspicuously approved, and that he had lo 
rendered essential service to his country by driving the 
enemy from those islands where they expected there could 
be no force capable of opposing them. The West India 
merchants in London, as men whose interests were more 
immediately benefited, appointed a deputation to express 15 
their thanks for his great and judicious exertions. It was 
now his intention to rest a while from his labors and recruit 
himself, after all his fatigues and cares, in the society of 
tiiose whom he loved. All his stores were brought up 
from the Victory, and he found in his house at Merton the 20 
enjoyment which he had anticipated. Many days had not 
elapsed before Captain Blackwood, on his way to London 
with dispatches, called on him at five in the morning. 
Nelson, who was already dressed, exclaimed the moment 
he saw him : " I am sure you bring me news of the French 25 
and Spanish fleets ! I think I shall yet have to beat them." 
They had refitted at Vigo, after the indecisive action with 
Sir Robert Calder, then proceeded to Ferrol, brought out 
the squadron from thence, and with it entered Cadiz in 
safety. "Depend on it, Blackwood," he repeatedly said, 30 
"I shall yet give M. Villeneuve a drubbing." 

His services were as willingly accepted as they were 
offered, and Lord Barliam, giving him the list of the navy, 
desired him to choose his own officers. " Choose yourself, 
my lord," was his reply. "The same spirit actuates the 3b 
whole profession; you cannot choose wrong." Lord Bar- 



188 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ham then desired him to say what ships and how many he 
would wish in addition to the fleet which he was going to 
command, and said they should follow him as soon as 
each was ready. No appointment was ever more in unison 
5 with the feelings and judgment of the whole nation. They 
thought that the destruction of the combined fleets ought 
properly to be Nelson's work ; that he who had been 

"Half around the sea-girt ball, 
The hunter of the recreant Gaul," * 

lo ought to reap the spoils of the chase, which he had 
watched so long and so perseveringly pursued. 

Unremitting exertions were made to equip the ships 
which he had chosen, and especially to refit the Victory, 
which was once more to bear his flag. He seemed to have 

15 been impressed with an expectation that he should fall in 
the battle. In a letter to his brother, written immediately 
after his return, he had said: "We ought not to talk of 
Sir Robert Calder's battle. I might not have done so much 
with my small force. If I had fallen in with them, you 

20 might probably have been a lord before I wished ; for I 
know they meant to make a dead set at the Victory.'''' 
The state of his feelings now was expressed in his private 
journal in these words: "Friday night (September 13th) 
at half -past ten, I drove from dear, dear Merton, where I 

25 left all which I hold dear in this world to go to serve my 
king and country. May the great God whom I adore en- 
able me to fulfill the expectations of my country ! And if 
it is His good pleasure that I should return, my thanks will 
never cease being offered up to the throne of His mercy. 

30 If it is His good providence to cut short my days upon 
earth, I bow with the greatest submission, relying that He 
will protect those so dear to me whom I may leave behind. 
His will be done. Amen ! Amen ! Amen ! " 

Early on the following morning he reached Portsmouth, 

* Songs of Trafalgar. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 130 

and having dispatched his business on shore endeavored to 
elude the populace, by taking a by- way to the beach ; but 
a crowd collected in his train, pressing forward to obtain 
sight of his face. Many were in tears, and many knelt 
down before him and blessed him as he passed. England 5 
has had many heroes, but never one who so entirely pos- 
sessed the love of his fellow-countrymen as Nelson. All 
men knew that his heart was as humane as it was fearless, 
that there was not in his nature the slightest alloy of selfish- 
ness or cupidity, but that with perfect and entire devotion lo 
he served his country with all his heart, and with all liis 
soul, and with all his strength; and therefore they loved 
him as truly and as fervently as he loved England. They 
pressed upon the parapet to gaze after him when his barge 
pushed off, and he was returning their cheers by waving 15 
his hat. The sentinels who endeavored to prevent them 
from trespassing upon this ground were wedged among the 
crowd, and an officer who not very prudently upon such 
an occasion ordered them to drive the people down with 
their bayonets, was compelled speedily to retreat ; for the 20 
people would not be debarred from gazing till the last 
moment upon the hero, the darling hero, of England ! 

He arrived off Cadiz on the 29th of September — his birth- 
day. Fearing that if the enemy knew his force they might 
be deterred from venturing to sea, he kept out of sight of 25 
land, desired Collingwood to fire no salute and hoist no 
colors, and wrote to Gibraltar to request that the force of 
the fleet might not be inserted there in the Gazette, His 
reception in the Mediterranean fleet was as gratifying as 
the farewell of his countrymen at Portsmouth, The officers 30 
who came on board to welcome him forgot his rank as 
commander in their joy at seeing him again. On the day 
of his arrival Villeneuve received orders to put to sea the 
first opportunity. Villeneuve, however, hesitated when 
he heard that Nelson had resumed the command. He 35 
called a council of war, and their determination was that it 



140 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

would not be expedient to leave Cadiz unless they had reason 
to believe themselves stronger by one-third than the Brit- 
ish force. In the public measures of this country secrecy 
is seldom practicable and seldom attempted. Here, how- 
5 ever, by the precautions of Nelson, and the wise measures 
of the Admiralty, the enemy were for once kept in ignor- 
ance ; for as the ships appointed to reinforce the Mediter- 
ranean fleet were dispatched singly, each as soon as it was 
ready, their collected number was not stated in the news- 

10 papers, and their arrival was not known to the enemy. 
But the enemy knew that Admiral Louis, with six sail, 
had been detached for stores and water to Gibraltar. 
Accident also contributed to make the French admiral 
doubt whether Nelson himself had actually taken the com- 

15 mand. An American lately arrived from England main- 
tained that it was impossible, for he had seen him only a 
few days before in London, and at that time there was no 
rumor of his going again to sea. 

The station which Nelson had chosen was some fifty or 

20 sixty miles to the west of Cadiz, near Cape St. Mary's. At 
this distance he hoped to decoy the enemy out, while he 
guarded against the danger of being caught with a westerly 
wind near Cadiz and driven within the Straits. The block- 
ade of the port was rigorously enforced in hopes that the 

25 combined fleet might be forced to sea by want. The Dan- 
ish vessels, therefore, which were carrying provisions from 
the French ports in the bay, under the name of Danish 
property, to all the little ports from Ayamonte to Algeziras, 
from whence they were conveyed in coasting boats to 

30 Cadiz, were seized. Without this proper exertion of power 
the blockade would have been rendered nugatory by the 
advantage thus taken of the neutral flag. The supplies 
from France were thus effectually cut off. There was now 
every indication that the enemy would speedily venture 

35 out. OflBcers and men were in the highest spirits at the 
prospect of giving them a decisive blow, such, indeed, as 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 141 

would put an end to all further contest upon the seas. 
Theatrical amusements were performed every evening" in 
most of the ships, and "God Save the King" was the hymn 
with which the sports concluded. " I verily believe," said 
Nelson, writing- on the 6th of October, " that the country 5 
will soon be put to some expense on my account, either a 
monument or a n%w pension and honors, for I have not the 
smallest doubt but that a very few days, almost hours, will 
put us in battle. The success no man can insure ; but for 
the fighting" them, if they can be got at, I pledge myself. 10 
The sooner the better. I don't like to have these things 
upon my mind." 

At this time he was not without some cause of anxiety. 
He was in want of frigates — the eyes of the fleet as he always 
called them : to the want of which the enemy before were 15 
indebted for their escape, and Bonaparte for his arrival in 
Egypt. He had only twenty-three ships — others were on 
the way but they might come too late— and though Nelson 
never doubted of victory, mere victory was not what he 
looked to : he wanted to annihilate the enemy's fleet. The 20 
Carthagena squadron might effect a junction with this 
fleet on the one side, and on the other it was to be expected 
that a similar attempt would be made by the French from 
Brest; in either case a formidable contingency to be appre- 
hended by the blockading force. The Rochefort squadron 25 
did push out, and had nearly caught the Agamemnon and 
VAimable in their way to reinforce the British admiral. 
Yet Nelson at this time weakened his own fleet. He 
had the unpleasant task to perform of sending home Sir 
Robert Calder, whose conduct was to be made the sub- 30 
ject of a court martial, in consequence of the general dis- 
satisfaction which had been felt and expressed at his 
imperfect victory. Sir Robert Calder and Sir John Orde, 
Nelson believed to be the only two enemies whom he had 

14 Eyes of the fleet. Because, as swift-sailing vessels, they can keep the 
commander informeil of the enemy's movements. 



142 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

ever had in his profession, and from that sensitive delicacy 
which distinguished him this made him the more scrupu- 
lously anxious to show every possible mark of respect and 
kindness to Sir Robert. He wished to detain him till after 
5 the expected action, when the services which he might 
perform and the triumphant joy whicli would be excited 
would leave nothing- to be apprehended from an inquiry 
into the previous engagement. Sir Robert, however, 
wiiose situation was very painful, did not choose to delay 

10 a trial from the result of which lie confidently expected a 
complete justification, and Nelson, instead of sending him 
home in a frigate, insisted on his returning in his own 
ninety-gun ship, ill as such a ship could at that time be 
spared. Nothing could be more honorable than the feeling 

15 by which Nelson was influenced, but at such a crisis it 
ought not to have been indulged. 

On the 9 th Nelson sent Col ling wood what he called in his 
diary the Nelson touch. "I send you," said he, " my plan 
of attack as far as a man dare venture to guess at the very 

20 uncertain position the enemy may be found in : but it is 
to place you perfectly at ease respecting my intentions, and 
to give full scope to your judgment for carrying them into 
effect. We can, my dear Coll., have no little jealousies. 
We have only one great object in view, that of annihilat- 

25 ing our enemies and getting a glorious peace for our 
country. No man has more confidence in another than I 
have in you, and no man will render your services more 
justice than your very old friend — Nelson and Bronte." 
The order of sailing was to be the order of battle — the fleet 

30 in two lines, with an advanced squadron of eight of the 
fastest-sailing two-deckers. The second in command, hav- 
ing the entire direction of his line, was to break through 
the enemy about the twelfth ship from their rear. He 
would lead through the center, and the advanced squadron 

35 was to cut off three or four ahead of the center. This plan 
was to be adapted to the strength of the enerny, so that 



THE LIFE OF NELSON H3 

they should always be one-fourth superior to those whom 
they cut off. Nelson said "That his admirals and captains, 
knowing his precise object to be that of a close and decisive 
action, would supply any deficiency of signals, and act 
accordingly. In case signals cannot be seen or clearly 5 
understood, no captain can do wrong if he places his ship 
alongside that of an enemy." One of the last orders of 
this admirable man was that the name and family of every 
officer, seaman, and marine who might be killed or 
wounded in action should be, as soon as possible, returned lo 
to him in order to be transmitted to the chairman of the 
patriotic fund, that the case might be taken into considera- 
tion for the benefit of the sufferer or his family. 

About half-past nine in the morning of the 19th, the 
Mars, being the nearest to the fleet of ships which formed 15 
the line of communication with the frigates in-shore, re- 
peated the signal that the enemy were coming out of port. 
The wind was at this time very light, with partial breezes, 
mostly from the S. S. W. Nelson ordered a signal to be 
made for a chase in the southeast quarter. About two, 20 
the repeating-ships announced that the enemy were at sea. 
All night the British fleet continued under all sail, steering 
to the southeast. At daybreak they were in the entrance 
of the Straits, but the enemy were not in sight. About 
seven, one of the frigates made signal that the enemy were 25 
bearing noi'th. Upon this the Victory hove to, and shortly 
afterward Nelson made sail again to the northward. In 
the afternoon the wind blew fresh from the southwest, and 
the English began to fear that the foe might be forced to 
return to port. A little before sunset, however. Black- 30 
wood, in the Euryalus, telegraphed that they appeared 
determined to go to the westward. "And that," said the 
admiral in his diary, "they shall not do if it is in the 
power of Nelson and Bronte to prevent them. " Nelson had 
signified to Blackwood that he depended upon him to keep 35 
91 Telegraphed. Signaled by flags. 



144 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

sight of the enemy. They were observed so well that all 
their motions were made know^n to him, and as they 
wore twice he inferred that they were aiming to keep the 
port of Cadiz open, and would retreat there "as soon as they 
5 saw the British fleet ; for this reason he was very careful 
not to approach near enough to be seen by them during 
the night. At daybreak the combhied fleets were distinctly 
seen from the Victory'^s deck, formed in a close line of 
battle ahead, on the starboard tack about twelve miles to 

ID leeward and standing to the south. Our fleet consisted 
of twenty-seven sail of the line and four frigates; theirs of 
thirty-three and seven large frigates. Their superiority 
was greater in size and weight of metal than in numbers. 
They had four thousand troops on board, and the best 

15 riflemen who could be procured — many of them Tyrolese — 
were dispersed through the ships. Little did the Tyrolese, 
and little did the Spaniards, at that day, imagine what 
horrors the wicked tyrant whom they served was preparing 
for their country. 

20 Soon after daylight Nelson came upon deck. The 21st 
of October was a festival in his family, because on that 
day his uncle, Captain Suckling, in the Dreadnought, with 
two other line-of-battle ships, had beaten off a French 
squadron of four sail of the line and three frigates. Nelson, 

25 with that sort of superstition from which few persons are 
entirely exempt, had more than once expressed his persua- 
sion that this was to be the day of his battle also; and he 
was well pleased at seeing his prediction about to be veri- 
fied. The wdnd was now from the west — light breezes, 

30 with a long heavy swell. Signal was made to bear down 
upon the enemy in two lines, and the fleet set all sail. 
Collingwood, in the Royal Sovereign, led the lee-line of 
thirteen ships ; the Victory led the weather-line of fourteen. 

15 Tyrolese. In 1809 the Tyrolese revolt was suppressed by the B'rench and 
Bavarians, and in 1810 the Tyrolese leader, Andreas Hofer, was shot by order 
of Napoleon. 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 145 

Having seen that all was as it should be, Nelson retired to 
his cabin and wrote the following prayer: 

" May the great God whom I worship grant to my coun- 
try, and for the benefit of Europe in general, a great and 
glorious victory, and may no misconduct in anyone tarnish 5 
it; and may humanity after victory be the predominant 
feature in the British fleet. For myself individually I 
commit my life to Him that made me; and may His bless- 
ing alight on my endeavors for serving my country faith- 
fully, ''to Him I resign myself and the just cause which is lo 
intrusted to me to defend. Amen, Amen, Amen." 

Blackwood went on board the Victory about six. He 
found him in good spirits, but very calm; not in that 
exhiliration which he had felt upon entering into battle 
at Aboukir and Copenhagen. He knew that his own life 15 
would be particularly aimed at, and seems to have looked 
for death with almost as sure an expectation as for victory. 
His whole attention was fixed upon the enemy. They 
tacked to the northward, and formed their line on the lar- 
board tack, thus bringing the shoals of Trafalgar and St. 20 
Pedro under the lee of the British, and keeping the port of 
Cadiz open for themselves. This was judiciously done, and 
Nelson, aware of all the advantages which it gave them, 
made signal to prepare to anchor. 

Villeneuve was a skillful seaman ; worthy of serving a 25 
better master, and a better cause. His plan of defense was 
as well conceived, and as original, as the plan of attack. 
He formed the fleet in a double line ; every alternate ship 
being about a cable's length to windward of her second 
ahead and astern. Nelson, certain of a triumphant issue 30 
to the day, asked Blackwell what he should consider as 
a victory. That officer answered, that, considering the 
handsome way in which battle was offered by the enemy, 
their apparent determination for a fair trial of strength, 
and the situation of the land, it thought it would be a glo- 35 
rious result if fourteen were captured. He replied: "I 



146 THE LIFE OF NliJLSON 

siiall not be satisfied with less than twenty." Soon after- 
ward he asked him if he did not tliink there was a signal 
wanting. Captain Blackwood made answer tliat he 
thought the whole fleet seemed very clearly to understand 

5 what they were about. These words were scarcely spoken 
before that signal was made, which will be remembered as 
long as the language, or even the memory, of England 
shall endure— Nelson's last signal: "England expects 
EVERY Man to do his Duty!" It was received through- 

lo out the fleet with a shout of answering acclamation, made 
sublime by the spirit which it breathed, and the feeling 
which it expressed. " Now," said Lord Nelson, " I can do 
no more. We must trust to the great Disposer of all events, 
and the justice of our cause. I thank God for this great 

15 opportunity of doing my duty." 

He wore that day, as usual, his admiral's frock coat, 
bearing on the left breast four stars, of the different orders 
with which he was invested. Ornaments which rendered 
him so conspicuous a mark for the enemy were beheld with 

20 ominous apprehensions by liis officers. It was known 
that there were riflemen on board the French ships ; and it 
could not be doubted but that his life would be particularly 
aimed at. They communicated their fears to each other ; 
and the surgeon, Mr. Beatty, spoke to the chaplain. Dr. 

25 Scott, and to Mr. Scott, the public secretary, desiring that 
some person would entreat him to change his dress, or 
cover the stars; but they knew that such a request would 
highly displease him. " In honor I gained them," he had 
said, when such a thing had been hinted to him formerly, 

30 " and in honor I will die with them." 

The French admiral, from the Bucentaiire, beheld the 
new manner in which his enemy was advancing — Nelson 
and Collingwood each leading his line; and pointing them 
out to his oflicers, he is said to have exclaimed that such 

35 conduct could not fail to be successful. Yet Villeneuve 
had made his own dispositions with the utmost skill, and 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 147 

the fleets under his coniiiiaiid waited for the attack with 
perfect coohiess. Ten minutes before twelve they opened 
their fire. Eight or nine of the ships immediately ahead 
of the Victory, and across her bows, fired single guns at 
her, to ascertain whether she was yet within their range. 5 
As soon as Nelson perceived that their shot passed over 
him, he desired Blackwood, and Captain Prowse, of the 
Siriiis, to repair to their respective frigates; and, on their 
way, to tell all the captains of the line-of -battle ships that 
he depended on their exertions ; and that, if by the pre- lo 
scribed mode of attack they found it impracticable to get 
into action immediately, they might adopt whatever they 
thought best, provided it led them quickly and closely 
alongside an enemy. As they were standing on the front 
poop, Blackwood took him by the hand, saying, he hoped 15 
soon to return, and find him in possession of twenty prizes. 
He replied, " God bless you, Blackwood; I shall never see 
you again ! " 

Nelson's column was steered about two points more to 
the north than Collingwood's, in order to cut off the 20 
enemy's escape into Cadiz : the lee-line, therefore, was first 
engaged. "See," cried Nelson, pointing to the Royal Sov- 
ereign, as she steered right for the center of the enemy's 
line, cut through it astern of the Santa Anna, three-decker, 
and engaged her at the muzzle of her guns on the starboard 25 
side; "see how that noble fellow, Collingwood, carries his 
ship into action!" Collingwood, delighted at being first 
in the heat of the fire, and knowing the feelings of his com- 
mander and old friend, turned to his captain, and exclaimed ; 
" Eotherham, what would Nelson give to be here? " Both 30 
these brave officers, perhaps, at this moment, thought of 
Nelson with gratitude, for a circumstance which had oc- 
curred on the preceding day. Admiral Collingwood, with 
some of the captains, having gone on board the Victory to 

19 Two points. The circumference of tlie compass is divided into thirty- 
two points. 



148 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



receive instructions, Nelson inquired of him where his cap 
tain was; and was told, in reply, that they were not on 
good terms with each other. "Terms!" said Nelson, 
"good terms with each other!" Immediately he sent a 
5 boat for Captain Rotherham; led him as soon as he 
arrived, to dollingwood, and saying, "Look; yonder are 
the enemy ! " bade them shake hands like Englishmen. 

The enemy continued to fire a gun at a time at the Vic- 
tory^ till they saw that a shot had passed through her 

lo main-topgallant sail; then they opened their broadsides, 
aiming chiefly at her rigging, in the hope of disabling her 
before she could close with them. Nelson, as usual, had 
hoisted several flags, lest one should be shot away. The 
enemy showed no colors till late in the action, when they 

15 began to feel the necessity of having them to strike. For 
this reason, the Santissima Trinidad, Nelson's old ac- 
quaintance, as he used to call her, was distinguishable only 
by her four decks; and to the bow of this opponent he 
ordered the Victory to be steered. Meantime, an incessant 

20 raking fire was kept up u^Don the Victory. The admiral's 
secretary was one of the first who fell ; he was killed by a 
cannon-shot while conversing with Hardy. Captain Adair, 
of the marines, with the help of a sailor, endeavored to re- 
move the body from Nelson's sight, who had a great regard 

25 for Mr. Scott; but he anxiously asked, " Is that poor Scott 
that's gone? "and being informed that it was indeed so, ex- 
claimed, " Poor fellow ! " Presently, a double-headed shot 
struck a party of marines, who were drawn up on the poop, 
and killed eight of them: upon which Nelson immediately 

30 desired Captain Adair to disperse his men round the ship, 
that they might not suffer so much from being together. 
A few minutes afterward a shot struck the fore-brace bitts 

28 Poop. The aftermost partial deck of a ship above the level of the 
complete deck. 

32 Fore-brace bitts. Wooden frames to which the ropes for shifting the 
foresail are fastened. 



I 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 149 

on the quarter-deck, and passed between Nelson and Hardy, 
a splinter from the bitt tearing off Hardy's buckle, and 
bruising his foot. Both stopped, and looked anxiously at 
each other: each supposed the other to be wounded. Nel- 
son then smiled, and said : " This is too warm work, Hardy, 5 
to last long." 

The Victory had not yet returned a single gun; fifty 
of her men had been by this time killed or wounded, and 
her main-topmast with all her studding-sails and their 
■ booms shot away. Nelson declared that in all his battles lo 
he had seen nothing which surpassed the cool courage of 
his crew on this occasion. At four minutes after twelve 
she opened her Are from both sides of her deck. It was not 
possible to break the enemy's line without running on board 
one of their ships; Hardy informed him of this, and asked 15 
him which he would prefer. Nelson replied: " Take your 
choice, Hardy ; it does not signify much." The master was 
ordered to put the helm to port, and the Victory ran on 
board the Redoubtable, just as her tiller-ropes were shot 
away. The French ship received her with a broadside ; 20 
then instantly let down her lower-deck ports, for fear of 
being boarded through them, and never afterward fired a 
great gun during the action. Her tops, like those of all 
the enemy's ships, were filled with riflemen. Nelson never 
placed musketry in his tops: he had a strong dislike to the 25 
practice; not merely because it endangers setting fire to the 
sails, but also because it is a murderous sort of warfare, by 
which individuals may suffer, and a commander now and 
then be ]ncked off, but which never can decide the fate of a 
general engagement. 3^ 

Captain Harvey, in the Temeraire, fell on board the Re- 



9 studding-sails. Light sails added on each side of the large sails. 

19 Tiller-ropes. Ropes connecting the rnddcr with the wheel by which the 
ship is steered. 

''■1 Ports. Square apertures in the ship's sides, through which the guns are 
fired. 



150 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

doubtable on the other side. Another enemy -was in like 
manner on board the Temeraire, so that these four ships 
formed as compact a tier as if they had been moored 
together, their heads lying all the same way. The lieu- 
5 tenants of the Victory, seeing this, depressed their guns 
of the middle and lower decks, and fired with a diminished 
charge, lest the shot should pass through and injure the 
Temeraire. And because there was danger that the Re- 
doubtable might take fire from the lower-deck guns, the 

10 muzzles of which touched her side when they were run out, 
the fireman of each gun stood ready with a bucket of water; 
which, as soon as the gun was discharged, he dashed into 
the hole made by the shot. An incessant fire was kept 
up from the Victory from both sides; her larboard guns 

15 playing upon the Bucentaure and the huge Santissima 
Trinidad. 

It had been part of Nelson's prayer that the British fleet 
might be distinguished by humanity in the victory he ex- 
pected. Setting an example himself, he twice gave orders 

20 to cease firing upon the Redoubtable, supposing that she 
had struck, because her great guns were silent ; for, as she 
carried no flag, there was no means of instantly ascertain- 
ing the fact. From this ship, which he had thus twice 
spared, he received his death. A ball flred from her mizzen- 

25 top, which, in the then situation of the two vessels, was 
not more than fifteen yards from that part of the deck 
where he was standing, struck the epaulette on his left 
shoulder, about a quarter after one, just in the heat of 
action. He fell upon his face, on the spot which was cov- 

3oered with his poor secretary's blood. Hardy, who was a 
few steps from him, turning round, saw three men raising 
him up. * ' They have done for me at last. Hardy ! " said 
he. "I hope not!" cried Hardy. "Yes," he replied; 
" my backbone is shot through! " Yet even now, not for 

35 a moment losing his presence of mind, he observed, as they 
wem carrying him down the ladder, that the tiller-ropes, 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 151 

which had been shot away, were not yet replaced, and 
ordered that new ones should be rove immediately. Then, 
that he might not be seen by the crew, he took out his 
handkerchief, and covered his face and his stars. Had he 
but concealed these badges of honor from the enemy, Eng- 5 
land, perhaps, would not have had cause to receive with 
sorrow the news of the battle of Trafalgar. The cockpit 
was crowded with wounded and dying men; over whose 
bodies he was with some difficulty conveyed, and laid upon 
a pallet in the midshipmen's berth. It was soon perceived, lo 
upon examination, that the wound was mortal. This, how- 
ever, was concealed from all except Captain Hardy, the 
chaplain, and the medical attendants. He himself being 
certain, from the sensation in his back, and the gush of 
blood he felt momently within his breast, that no human 15 
care could avail him, insisted that the surgeon should leave 
him, and attend to those to whom he might be useful. 
"For," said he, "you can do nothing for me." All that 
could be done was to fan him with paper, and frequently 
to give him lemonade to alleviate his intense thirst. He 20 
was in great pain, and expressed much anxiety for the 
event of the action, which now began to declare itself. As 
often as a ship struck, the crew of the Victory hurrahed, 
and at every hurrah, a visible expression of joy gleamed in 
the eyes, and marked the countenance of the dying hero. 25 
But he became impatient to see Captain Hardy, and as that 
officer, though often sent for, could not leave the deck. 
Nelson feared that some fatal cause prevented him, and 
repeatedly cried: " Will no one bring Hardy to me? He 
must be killed! He is surely dead!" An hour and ten 30 
minutes elapsed from the time when Nelson received his 
wound before Hardy could come to him. They shook 
hands in silence, Hardy in vain struggling to suppress 
the feelings of that most painful and yet sublimest moment. 
" Well, Hardy," said Nelson, " how goes the day with us? " 35 

2 Rove. Put in place by passing through the necessary blocks. 



152 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

"Very well," replied Hardy; " ten ships have struck, but 
five of the van have tacked, and show an intention to bear 
down upon the Victory. I have called two or three of our 
fresh ships round, and have no doubt of giving them a 
5 drubbing." "I hope," said Nelson, "none of our ships 
have struck?" Hardy answered, " There was no fear of 
that." Then, and not till then. Nelson spoke of liimself. 
" I am a dead man. Hardy," said he: "I am going fast; it 
will be all over with me soon." Hardy observed that he 

10 hoped Mr. Beatty could yet hold out some prospect of life. 
"Oh, no! " he replied; "it is impossible; my back is shot 
through. Beatty will tell you so." Captain Hardy then, 
once more, shook hands with him, and with a heart almost 
bursting, hastened upon deck. 

15 By this time all feeling below the breast was gone, and 
Nelson, having made the surgeon ascertain this, said to him: 
' ' You know I am gone. I know it. I feel something rising 
in my breast" (putting his hand on his left side) " which 
tells me so." And upon Beatt3^'s inquiring whether his pain 

20 was very great, he replied, "So great that he wished he 
was dead. Yet," said he, in a lower tone, "one would like 
to live a little longer too!" Captain Hardy, some fifty 
minutes after he had left the cockpit, returned, and again 
taking the hand of his dying friend and commander, con- 

25 gratulated him on having gained a complete victory. How 
man}^ of the enemy were taken he did not know, as it was 
impossible to perceive them distinctly, but fourteen or fifteen 
at least. " That's well ! " cried Nelson : " but I bargained for 
twenty. " And then, in a stronger voice, he said : ' 'Anchor, 

30 Hardy; anchor." Hardy, upon tliis, hinted that Admiral 
Collingwood would take upon himself the direction of 
affairs. " Not while I live, Hardy," said the dying Nelson, 
ineffectually endeavoring to raise himself from the bed; 
"do you anchor." His previous order for preparing to 

35 anchor had shown how clearly he foresaw the necessity of 
this. Presently, calling Hardy back, he said to him, in a 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 1^3 

low voice: "Don't throw me overboard"; and he desired 
that he might be buried by his parents, unless it should 
please the king to order otherwise. ''Kiss me, Hardy,'' 
said he. Hardy knelt down and kissed his cheek, and 
Nelson said: "Now I am satisfied. Thank God, I have 5 
donemydutv!" Hardy stood over him in silence for a 
moment or two, then knelt again, and kissed his forehead. 
"Who is that?" said Nelson, and being informed, he 
replied: "God bless you, Hardy!" And Hardy then left 
him, forever. ^° 

Nelson now desired to be turned upon his right side, and 
said: " I wish I had not left the deck; for I shall soon be 
gone." Death was, indeed, rapidly approaching. He said 
to the chaplain : " Doctor, I have not been a great sinner." 
His articulation now became difficult ; but he was distinctly 1 5 
heard to say : " Thank God, I have done my duty ! " These 
words he repeatedly pronounced, and they were the last 
words which he uttered. He expired at thirty minutes 
after four, three hours and a quarter after he had received 
his wound. 

Within a quarter of an hour after Nelson was wounded, 
above fifty of the Victory's men fell by the enemy's mus- 
ketry. They, however, on their part, were not idle, and it 
was not long before there were only two Frenchmen left 
alive in the mizzen-top of the Redoubtable. One of them 25 
was the man who had given the fatal wound; he did not 
live to boast of what he had done. An old quartermaster 
had seen him fire, and easily recognized him, because he 
wore a glazed cocked hat and a white frock. This quarter- 
master and two midshipmen, Mr. Collingwood and Mr. 30 
Pollard, were the only persons left in the Victory's poop; 
the two midshipmen kept firing at the top, and he supplied 
them with cartridges. One of the Frenchmen, attempting 
to make his escape down the rigging, was shot by Mr. Pol- 
lard, and fell on the poop. But the old quarte rmaster, as 35 

1 Throw me overboard. The ordinary method of burial at sea. 



154 THE LIFE OF NELSON 

he cried out: "That's he, that's he!" and pointed at the 
other, who was coming forward to fire again, received a 
shot in his mouth, and fell dead. Both the midshipmen 
then fired at the same time, and the fellow dropped in the 
5 top. When they took possession of the prize, they went 
into the mizzen-top, and found him dead; with one ball 
through his head, and another through his breast. 

The Redoubtable struck within twenty minutes after the 
fatal shot had been fired from her. During that time she 

10 had been twice on fire ; in her forechains, and in her fore- 
castle. The French, as they had done in other battles, 
made use in this of fire-balls, and other combustibles ; im- 
plements of destruction which other nations, from a sense 
of honor and humanity, have laid aside; which add to the 

15 sufferings of the wounded, without determining the issue 
of the combat; which none but the cruel would employ, 
and which never can be successful against the brave. Once 
they succeeded in setting fire, from the Redoubtable, to 
some ropes and canvas on the Victory's booms. The cry 

20 ran through the ship, and reached the cockpit; but even 
this dreadful cry produced no confusion; the men displayed 
that perfect self-possession in danger by which English 
seamen are characterized; they extinguished the flames on 
board their own ship, and then hastened to extinguish them 

25 in the enemy, by throwing buckets of water from the gang- 
way. When the Redoubtable had struck, it was not prac- 
ticable to board her from the Victory, for, though the two 
ships touched, the upper works of both fell in so much that 
there was a great space between their gangw^ays, and she 

30 could not be boarded from the lower or middle decks, 
because her ports were down. Some of our men went to 
Lieutenant Quill iam, and offered to swim under her bows, 
and get up there; but it was thought unfit to hazard brave 
lives in this manner. 

35 What our men would have done from gallantry, some 
of the crew of the Santissima Trinidad did id save them- 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 155 

selves. Unable to stand the tremendous fire of the Victory, 
whose larboard guns played against this great four-decker, 
and not knowing how else to escape them, nor where else 
to betake themselves for protection, many of them leaped 
overboard, and swam to the Victory, and were actually 5 
helped up her sides by the English dunng the action. The 
Spaniards began the battle with less vivacity than their 
unworthy allies, but continued it with greater firmness. 
The Argonauta and Bahama were defended till they had 
each lost about 400 men ; the San Juan Nepomuceon lost lo 
350. Often as the superiority of British courage has been 
proved against France upon the seas, it was never more 
conspicuous than in this decisive conflict. Five of our 
ships were engaged muzzle to muzzle with five of the 
French. In all five the Frenchmen lowered their lower- 15 
deck ports, and deserted their guns; while our men con- 
tinued deliberately to load and fire, till they had made the 
victory secure. 

Once, amid his sutferings. Nelson had expressed a wish 
that he were dead; but immediately the spirit subdued the 20 
pains of death, and he wished to live a little longer; doubt- 
less that he might hear the completion of the victory which 
he had seen so gloriously begun. That consolation, that 
joy, that triumph, was afforded him. He lived to know 
that the victory was decisive; and the last guns which 25 
were fired at the flying enemy were heard a minute or two 
before he expired. The ships which were thus flying were 
four of the enemy's van, all French, under Rear Admiral 
Dumanoir. They had borne no part in the action ; and 
now, when they were seeking safety in flight, they fired 30 
not only into the Victory and Royal Sovereign as they 
passed, but poured their broadsides into the Spanish cap- 
tured ships ; and they were seen to back their top-sails, for 
the purpose of firing with more precision. The indignation 

33 Back their top-sails. So that the wind, striking ihe sails from the front, 
would tend to check the motion of the vessel. 



156 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



I 



of the Spaniards at this detestable cruelty from their allies, 
for whom they had fought so bravely, and so profusely 
bled, may well be conceived. It was such that when, two 
days after the action, seven of the ships which had escaped 
5 into Cadiz came out, in hopes of retaking some of the dis- 
abled prizes, the prisoners in the Argonauta, in a body, 
offered their services to the British prize-master, to man 
the guns against any of the French ships: saying that if a 
Spanish ship came alongside they would quietly go below; 

lo but they requested that they might be allowed to fight the 
French, in resentment for the murderous usage which they 
had suffered at their hands. Such was their earnestness, 
and such the implicit confidence which could be placed in 
Spanish honor, that the offer was accepted ; and they were 

15 actually stationed at the lower-deck guns. Dumanoir and 
his squadron were not more fortunate than the fleet from 
whose destruction they fled ; they fell in with Sir Richard 
Strachan, who was cruising for the Rochefort squadron, 
and were all taken. 

20 The total British loss in the battle of Trafalgar amounted 
to 1587. Twenty of the enemy struck : unhappily the fleet 
did not anchor, as Nelson, almost with his dying breath, 
had enjoined. A gale came on from the southwest; some 
of the prizes went down, some went on shore; one effected 

25 its escape into Cadiz ; others were destroyed ; four only w^ere 
saved, and those by the greatest exertions. The wounded 
Spaniards were sent ashore, an assurance being given that 
they should not serve till regularly exchanged; and the 
Spaniards, with a generous feeling which would not, per- 

30 ha])s, have been found in any other people, offered the use 
of their hospitals for our wounded, pledging the honor of 
Spain that they should be carefully attended there. When 
the storm, after the action, drove some of the prizes upon 
the coast, they declared that the English, who were thus 

35 thrown into their hands, should not be considered as 
prisoners of war ; and the Spanish soldiers gave up their 



THE LIFE OF NELSON 157 

own beds to their shipwrecked enemies. The Spanish A^ice 
Admiral, Alva, died of his wounds. Villeneuve was sent to 
England, and permitted to return to France. The French 
Government say that he destroyed himself on the way to 
Paris, dreading" the consequences of a court-martial : but 5 
there is every reason to believe that the tyrant, who never 
acknowledged the loss of the battle of Trafalgar, added 
Villeneuve to the numerous victims of his murderous 
policy. 

It is almost superfluous to add that all the honors which lo 
a grateful country could bestow were heaped upon the 
memory of Nelson. His brother was made an earl, with a 
grant of six thousand pounds a year; ten thousand pounds 
were voted to each of his sisters ; and one hundred thousand 
pounds for the purchase of an estate. A public funeral 15 
was decreed, and a public monument. Statues and monu- 
ments also were voted by most of our principal cities. The 
leaden coffin in which he was brought home was cut in 
pieces, which were distributed as relics of Saint Nelson — 
so the gunner of the Victory called them; and when, at 20 
his interment, his flag was about to be lowered into the 
grave, the sailors, who assisted at the ceremony, with one 
accord, rent it in pieces, that each might preserve a frag- 
ment while he lived. 

The death of Nelson was felt in England as something 25 
more than a public calamity. Men started at the intelli- 
gence and turned pale, as if they had heard of the loss of a 
dear friend. An object of our admiration and affection, of 
our pride and of our hopes, was suddenly taken from us, 
and it seemed as if we had never, till then, known how 30 
deeply we loved and reverenced him. What the country 
had lost in its great naval hero — the greatest of our own 
and of all former times — was scarcely taken into the 
account of grief. So perfectly, indeed, had he performed 
his part, that the maritime war, after the battle of Trafal- 35 
gar, was considered at ^.1 end. The fleets of the enemy 



•^ 



158 THE LIFE OF NELSON 



were not merely defeated, but destroyed; new navies must 
be bulk, and a new race of seamen reared for them, before 
the possibility of their invading our shores could again be 
contemplated. It was not, therefore, from any selfish 
5 reflection upon the magnitude of our loss that we mourned 
for him; the general sorrow was of a higher character. 
The people of England grieved that funeral ceremonies, 
and public monuments, and posthumous rewards, were 
all which they could now bestow upon him whom the king, 

lothe legislature, and the nation would have alike delighted 
to honor; whom every tongue would have blessed; vvliose 
presence in every village through which he might have 
passed would have wakened the church-bells, have given 
schoolboys a holiday, have drawn children from their 

15 sports to gaze upon him, and " old men from the chimney- 
corner " to look upon Nelson ere they died. The vic- 
tory of Trafalgar was celebrated, indeed, with the usual 
forms of rejoicing, but they were without joy; for such 
already was the glory of the British navy, through Nel- 

20 son's surpassing genius, that it scarcely seemed to receive 
any addition from the most signal victory that ever was 
achieved upon the seas ; and the destruction of this mighty 
fleet, by which all the maritime schemes of France were 
totally frustrated, hardly appeared to add to our security 

25 or strength; for, while Nelson was living to watch the com- 
bined squadrons of the enemy, we felt ourselves as secure 
as now, wlieu they were no longer in existence. 

There was reason to suppose, from the appearances upon 
opening the body, that, in the course of nature, he might 

30 have attained, like his father, to a good old age. Yet he 
cannot be said to have fallen prematurely, whose work was 
done; nor ought he to be lamented, who died so full of 
honors, and at the height of human fame. The most 
triumphant death is that of the martyr; the most awful 

35 that of the martyred patriot; the most splendid that of 
the hero in the hour of victory ; and if the chariot and the 



V 



THE LIFE OF AELSON 159 

horses of fire had been vouchsafed for Nelson's translation, 
he could scarcely have departed in a brighter blaze of glory. 
He has left us, not, indeed, his mantle of inspiration, but 
a name and an example which are at this hour inspiring 
thousands of the youth of England — a name which is our 5 
pride, and an example which will continue to be our shield 
and our strength. 



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